By Louise Riondel
Morocco World News
Rennes, France, Nov 22, 2012
The French presidential palace was targeted by hackers in May this year, just before the election of François Hollande. It is believed that they had access to “secret notes and strategic plans” through the computer network.
French newspaper Le Télégramme had already disclosed the information in July, but the magazine L’Express, announced this Wednesday that the attack was coming from the United States.Even though the information was denied by the American administration, which reaffirmed its cooperation with France, especially when it comes to terrorism, an investigation is under way to find out who is responsible, and the US remains the number one suspect.
According to the sources, the cyber pirates entered the palace’s network via Facebook. After sending invitations to insiders on the social network, they directed them to a fake page, through which they hijacked their passwords. They then had no problems logging on to the website and installing a computer virus called Flame, which found the precious information.
The problem is that Flame is only mastered by the US and Israel, making it easy to find the culprit. If the mystery remains on its origin, one might think of three major reasons for such an intrusion: the US might have been worried by Socialist Hollande’s potential election; Washington may have been looking at France’s contracts with other countries, or the attack might have been a mistake.
However, the one thing that remains sure is that France’s technological backwardness in this matter exposes the country to a great danger in an era in which cyber pirates’ techniques are growing more sophisticated.
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