Hackers hit Macron campaign with ‘massive’ attack Financial Times

Presidential front-runner’s team say fake and genuine documents were mixed to spread doubt

The campaign team of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron says it has been the victim of a “massive and co-ordinated” hacking operation ahead of Sunday’s election.

Around nine gigabytes of data were posted online to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for releasing the files.

The documents, posted on Friday night, appeared to contain details of emails and financial data from Mr Macron’s En Marche! campaign. Publication of the documents by the media could lead to criminal charges as the campaign has formally ended.

In a statement, Mr Macron’s campaign said the leaked documents only revealed the normal functioning of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow “doubt and misinformation”. 

The hacking is just the latest twist in France’s most unconventional presidential campaign since the second world war, which has seen the collapse of the mainstream political parties and one candidate hobbled by embezzlement allegations. 

“The En Marche! movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information,” the Macron campaign said

Access complete text of the editorial:  Financial Times