Macron Campaign Says It Was Target of ‘Massive’ Hacking Attack -
By AURELIEN BREEDEN, SEWELL CHAN and NICOLE PERLROTHMAY 5, 2017
PARIS — On the eve of the most consequential French presidential election in decades, the staff of the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron said late Friday
that the campaign had been targeted by a “massive and coordinated” hacking operation, one with the potential to destabilize the nation’s democracy before voters go to the polls on Sunday.
In a statement, the Macron campaign said the hackers had mixed fake documents along with authentic ones, “to sow doubt and misinformation.”
“Intervening in the final hour of the official campaign, this operation is clearly a matter of democratic destabilization,
as was seen in the United States during the last presidential campaign,” the statement said.
The Macron campaign said the documents leaked Friday were stolen several weeks ago after the personal
and professional emails of staff members at En Marche, his political movement, were hacked.
They shared nine gigabytes worth of documents and emails — “a jumble of what appears to be the contents of a hard drive
and several emails of co-workers and En Marche political officials.”
“It will take to time to sift through it all, but at first glance, they seem to be utterly mundane,” Numerama said after analyzing the data.
