USA blamed for spy malware planted on French president's network

[anuseems]

A newspaper has published details of what it claims was a sophisticated state-sponsored hack into the offices of the French presidency earlier this year with the intention of stealing data.

And which country does L'Express allege planted malware on computers at the Elysee Palace belonging to officials working for then-president Nicolas Sarkozy? None other than the United States.

Yes, you heard that right - for once, it's not China being blamed for spying on another nation. Instead, it's the USA - a country that you would normally imagine are on reasonably cordial terms with France.

According to the newspaper, the malware attack took place in May 2012, shortly before the second round of presidential elections in France, but has been kept secret until now.

The newspaper alleges that the hackers used simple social engineering tricks to worm their way into what should have been some of the best secured networks in France.

Workers at the Élysée Palace are said to have been befriended on Facebook by hackers, who then sent their victims a link to what purported to be a login page for the Élysée intranet site. In this way, it's claimed, login credentials were stolen.

It is alleged that malware was then installed on the network, infecting computers belonging to senior political advisors, including Xavier Musca, Secretary-General of Nicolas Sarkozy's office.

Sarkozy is said to have escaped infection himself because he did not have use of a networked PC.

(For the record, Sarkozy has previously had his Facebook account hacked, and had his bank account broken into - so maybe this was a lucky escape for him).

It is alleged that email messages and sensitive documents were scooped up the spyware - which was said to bear the hallmarks of the Flame malware that hit some computers in the Middle East (most notably Iran) earlier this year.

The United States's Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano, reportedly missed an opportunity to deny her country's involvement in the alleged hack, just saying:

"We have no greater partner than France, we have no greater ally than France.. We co-operate in many security-related areas. I am here to further reinforce those ties and create new ones."

We shouldn't, of course, necessarily assume that just because Napolitano chose not to deny that the USA hacked France that that means that they did do it.

After all, it's possible that Napolitano simply doesn't know if the USA was involved - and doesn't want to denyg something which later turns out to be true.

Or it's possible that she's not authorised to confirm or deny the US's involvement for understandable intelligence reasons. (If you always deny everything that's not true, it's very easy for people to work out what is true when you refuse to deny it).

Janet Napolitano's involvement in this story reminds me rather of US Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who squirmed on camera last year when quizzed about whether America had been responsible for the creation of Stuxnet.

(Of course, we're all a little wiser about the creation of Stuxnet now).

If it is true that the United States used malware to spy upon the French government I don't think we should necessarily be surprised. We'd be naive to think that just about every developed country in the world is using the internet for its political, commercial and military advantage.

And you don't need to be in active hostilities with another country to have a very genuine interest in what they might be planning.

Nevertheless, you can imagine such revelations (if true) could cause some awkward conversations between the diplomats.

@ http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/11/21/spyware-french-president/

[DKT27]

And what malware it was? Flame. ;) Yes, that dangerous, Iran nuclear plant targeted malware which was leaked out to public, but only computers in middle east were effected. US govt's immoral malware making acts aside, why Sarkozy? And why Flame?

[digimon]

And what malware it was? Flame. ;) Yes, that dangerous, Iran nuclear plant targeted malware which was leaked out to public, but only computers in middle east were effected. US govt's immoral malware making acts aside, why Sarkozy? And why Flame?

simple as a world empire you want to gather as much intel on all potential threats even from your own friends

simply put the us government has and does spy on every government on earth Canada britian France Germany isreal gaza India china the us has spies in all of them and all of these governments have secrets they dont want any other government or the public to know

the primary objective of the cia is to gather as much intel on as many government and quasi government entities as possible (quasi being entitys like al qaudi etc)if that means an opportunity to put flame on a presidents laptop from France comes up you are gonna take it

after-all today's friends can be tomorrows enemy's

[myidisbb]

because Sarkozy was consider far right. and therefor a threat to barry the obamar

[son.of.the.sun]

Freedom Fries !!!

[ffi]

because Sarkozy was consider far right. and therefor a threat to barry the obamar

He's considered an extreme leftist commie nutjob over here in Holland, just a little more sane than Hollande, who makes Kim from North Korea look like a right wing libertarian