The huge trove of hacked emails from Emmanuel Macron's campaign had barely been released online when the spotlight immediately fell on Russia hackers.

With as much as 9 gigabytes of data from the campaign having been dumped online, instant comparisons were made with the cyber attack on the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of Hillary Clinton's Democratic campaign.

US intelligence agencies said in January that Vladimir Putin, Russian President, had ordered those hacks to influence the election on behalf of Donald Trump, her Republican rival who went on to win the US presidency.

The Russian president has repeatedly denied the accusations and this week said "it has never occurred to us to interfere in other countries internal affairs".</s>PARIS (AP) — France's election campaign commission is examining a hacking attack on candidate Emmanuel Macron's political movement and subsequent document leaks online.

The commission said it would have a meeting early Saturday to discuss the attack.

It urged French media not to publish the documents, warning that some of them are "probably" fake.

French electoral law imposes a blackout Saturday and most of Sunday on any campaigning and media coverage seen as swaying the election, to allow voters a period of reflection before casting their ballots.

Macron is seen as the favorite going into Sunday's runoff against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.</s>Emmanuel Macron is pictured through a window of his hotel during a campaign visit in Rodez May 5, 2017. — Reuters pic FRANKFURT, May 6 — Leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign said yesterday it had been the target of a "massive" computer hack that dumped its campaign emails online 1-1/2 days before voters choose between the centrist and his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen.

Macron, who is seen as the frontrunner in an election billed as the most important in France in decades, extended his lead over Le Pen in polls yesterday.

As much as nine gigabytes of data were posted on a profile called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a site that allows anonymous document sharing. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of it was genuine.

In a statement, Macron's political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

“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 statement said.

An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules that forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, which took effect at midnight yesterday (2200 GMT).

The presidential election commission said in statement that it would hold a meeting later today after Macron's campaign informed it about the hack and publishing of the data.

It urged the media to be cautious about publishing details of the emails given that campaigning had ended, and publication could lead to criminal charges.

Comments about the email dump began to appear yesterday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began. The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close tomorrow at 8pm (1800 GMT).

Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in tomorrow's second round of voting, in what is seen to be France's most important election in decades. The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 per cent of the vote.

Former economy minister Macron's campaign has previously complained about attempts to hack its emails, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a attempts to steal email credentials dating back to January, but that the perpetrators had failed to compromise any campaign data.

The Kremlin has denied it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron's camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers' group operating in Ukraine.

Vitali Kremez, director of research with New York-based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, told Reuters his review indicates that APT 28, a group tied to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence directorate, was behind the leak. He cited similarities with U.S. election hacks that have been previously attributed to that group.

APT28 last month registered decoy internet addresses to mimic the name of En Marche, which it likely used send tainted emails to hack into the campaign’s computers, Kremez said. Those domains include onedrive-en-marche.fr and mail-en-marche.fr.

“If indeed driven by Moscow, this leak appears to be a significant escalation over the previous Russian operations aimed at the US presidential election, expanding the approach and scope of effort from simple espionage efforts towards more direct attempts to sway the outcome,” Kremez said.

France is the latest nation to see a major election overshadowed by accusations of manipulation through cyber hacking.

US intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of parties tied to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to influence the election on behalf of Republican rival Donald Trump.

Last night as the #Macronleaks hashtag buzzed around social media, Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the National Front, tweeted “Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately killed?”

En Marche! said the documents only showed 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.”

Ben Nimmo, a UK-based security researcher with the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council think tank, said initial analysis indicated that a group of US far-right online activists were behind early efforts to spread the documents via social media. They were later picked up and promoted by core social media supporters of Le Pen in France, Nimmo said.

The hashtag #MacronLeaks was first spread by Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump activist whose Twitter profile identifies him as Washington DC bureau chief of the far-right activist site Rebel TV, according to Nimmo and other analysts tracking the election.

Posobiec could not immediately be reached to comment by Reuters.

“You have a hashtag drive that started with the alt-right in the United States that has been picked up by some of Le Pen’s most dedicated and aggressive followers online,” Nimmo told Reuters.

Alt-right refers to a loose-knit group of far-right activists known for their advocacy of extremist ideas, rejection of mainstream conservatism and disruptive social media tactics. — Reuters</s>Frankfurt/Paris: A large trove of emails from the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was posted online late on Friday, around a day before before voters go to the polls to choose the country's next president in a run-off against far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of them were genuine.

In a statement, Macron's political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked."The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and coordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information," the statement said.

"The files circulating were obtained several weeks ago due to the hacking of the personal and professional mailboxes of several party officials," Macron's En Marche! (On The Move) party said in a statement on Friday, just as campaigning officially ended ahead of Sunday's election.

En Marche! added that the documents released online only showed 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 seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk," it added. Macron's team also said that all the documents were "lawful".

The WikiLeaks website posted a link on Twitter to the trove of documents — saying it "contains many tens of thousands emails, photos, attachments up to April 24, 2017" — while indicating it was not responsible for the leak itself.

WikiLeaks said there were around 9 gigabytes of data in total, saying it was "checking parts" of the cache.

An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules which forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, and which took effect at midnight French time on Friday. Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began. The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close on Sunday at 8 pm (1800 GMT).Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday's second round of voting in what is seen to be France's most important election in decades.

Former economy minister Macron's team has already complained about attempts to hack it systems during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks. On 26 April, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

In February, the Kremlin denied that it was behind any such attacks, even though his camp renewed the charges against Russian media and a hackers' group operating in Ukraine.</s>France's electoral commission has ordered media not to publish contents of Emmanuel Macron's leaked campaign emails to avoid influencing the election.

It warned news outlets in France that journalists could face criminal charges for publishing or republishing the material, under laws that came into effect at midnight forbidding any commentary liable to affect the presidential race.

There were fears the hack could swing Sunday’s final vote, where Mr Macron was expected to comfortably beat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

As much as 9GB gigabytes of data were posted on a profile called EMLEAKS to an anonymous document sharing site under two days before the final vote.

While French election rules forbid the media from publishing the emails, they also ban Mr Macron or his team from commenting on or denying any allegations.

His En Marche! party said it had “been the victim of a massive and coordinated hack” on Friday evening, adding that it had “given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information”.

A spokesperson said the communications only showed 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”.

“This operation is obviously an attempt at destabilising democracy, as has already been seen in the US during the last presidential campaign,” he added.

“The ambition of the authors of this leak is obviously to harm the En Marche! movement within hours of the second round of the French presidential election.”

Shape Created with Sketch. French Presidential Election Show all 20 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. French Presidential Election 1/20 Voters line up to cast their ballots REUTERS 2/20 REUTERS 3/20 REUTERS 4/20 Police patrol polling stations in France REUTERS 5/20 REUTERS 6/20 REUTERS 7/20 REUTERS 8/20 REUTERS 9/20 Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux REUTERS 10/20 Emmanuel Macron casts his ballot REUTERS 11/20 SAA/ 12/20 REUTERS 13/20 Front National leader Marine Le Pen casts her ballot REUTERS 14/20 Early ballots are read as results continue to come in Reuters 15/20 Macron supporters react as results come in early in the evening AP 16/20 Supporters of Front National leader Marine Le Pen cheer as early results come in Reuters 17/20 Alamy 18/20 Front National leader Marine Le Pen takes to the stage to address her supporters as fans cheer Reuters 19/20 Emmanuel Macron greets supporters on Sunday night AP 20/20 Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux celebrate the incoming results EPA 1/20 Voters line up to cast their ballots REUTERS 2/20 REUTERS 3/20 REUTERS 4/20 Police patrol polling stations in France REUTERS 5/20 REUTERS 6/20 REUTERS 7/20 REUTERS 8/20 REUTERS 9/20 Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux REUTERS 10/20 Emmanuel Macron casts his ballot REUTERS 11/20 SAA/ 12/20 REUTERS 13/20 Front National leader Marine Le Pen casts her ballot REUTERS 14/20 Early ballots are read as results continue to come in Reuters 15/20 Macron supporters react as results come in early in the evening AP 16/20 Supporters of Front National leader Marine Le Pen cheer as early results come in Reuters 17/20 Alamy 18/20 Front National leader Marine Le Pen takes to the stage to address her supporters as fans cheer Reuters 19/20 Emmanuel Macron greets supporters on Sunday night AP 20/20 Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte Trogneux celebrate the incoming results EPA

En Marche! previously complained about attempts to hack its emails, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks despite denials from the Kremlin.

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Officials said it had been the target of failed attempts to steal email credentials dating back to January, identifying a hacking group operating in Ukraine.

Vitali Kremez, director of research with US-based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, told Reuters APT 28, a group tied to Russia’s military intelligence directorate, was behind the leak.

The collective, also known as “Fancy Bear” and “Sofacy”, has been linked to cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee during the US election, the White House, German Parliament, Nato and French media.

Last month, APT 28 hackers registered decoy internet addresses to mimic the name of En Marche!, which were used to send corrupted emails to hack into the campaign’s computers, Mr Kremez said.

“If indeed driven by Moscow, this leak appears to be a significant escalation over the previous Russian operations aimed at the US presidential election, expanding the approach and scope of effort from simple espionage efforts towards more direct attempts to sway the outcome,” he added.

Far-right American activists are believed to be behind early efforts to spread the documents on social media, before they were picked up by Ms Le Pen’s supporters in France.

The leaks emerged on 4chan, where an anonymous poster provided links to documents on Pastebin with the message: “This was passed on to me today so now I am giving it to you, the people.”

The hashtag #MacronLeaks was spread by prominent Twitter accounts including that of Jack Posobiec, a pro-Donald Trump activist and employee of the far-right site Rebel TV.

The cyber attack came after repeated allegations of Russian interference in elections across Europe and the US, with Mr Macron previously targeting state media including Russia Today and Sputnik for spreading “fake news” to damage his campaign.

The two government-owned news outlets has announced legal action against Mr Macron over his allegations, which came after the politician denied unsubstantiated reports of an alleged offshore bank account.

Margarita Simonyan, the editor of both RT and Sputnik, said: “We are tired of their lies. We will sue them.”

Mr Macron has filed a legal complaint over the reports, which were raised by Ms Le Pen during a heated television debate.

The Paris’ prosecutor’s office said no one was named in the complaint, which has triggered an inquiry into the suspected spread of false stories aimed at influencing the election.

Vladimir Putin has dismissed allegations of interfering in foreign elections including the US and Germany, hitting out at unproven "rumours".

“We never interfere in other countries’ politics and we want no one to meddle in ours,” the Russian President said during a tense press conference with Angela Merkel.

“Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite happening for years. We have seen attempts to influence political processes in Russia through the so-called NGOs and directly.

“Realising the futility of such efforts, it has never occurred to us to interfere."</s>French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron has condemned a “massive hacking attack” on his election campaign, after a number of emails purporting to be from his campaign were leaked online late Friday afternoon.

A 9GB trove of data was posted to Pastebin, an anonymous link-sharing website, by a user titling themselves “EMLEAKS.” The files mostly appear to be archives of emails from the Macron campaign, including the candidate and advisers.

The authenticity and content of the emails has not yet been examined, but the Macron campaign’s condemnation would appear to point towards the emails being authentic.

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the hack. However, a user on 4chan’s popular /pol/ did promise a dump of Macron’s data in a post made yesterday. In the post, the anonymous user claimed to have “swiftnet logs going back months” that prove Macron’s tax evasion, but that doesn’t appear to be contained in today’s data dump.

In a statement, Macron’s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

“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 statement said.

The election is due to take place on Sunday, but French law mandates a “quiet period” for the day preceding the election. That period took effect at midnight Friday evening (local time), just hours after the data was pasted. The quiet period limits official commentary on the hack, the results of any investigations from being made public, and will put a damper on media coverage. Social media users in France are supposed to abide by the quiet period rules, but the election and data dump are currently trending on Twitter in France.</s>FRANKFURT/PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) – A large trove of emails from the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was posted online late on Friday, 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose the country’s next president in a run-off against far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of them were genuine.

READ MORE: Greenpeace activists climb Eiffel Tower to protest Marine Le Pen before France election

In a statement, Macron‘s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

“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 statement said.



An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules which forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, and which took effect at midnight French time on Friday (2200 GMT).

Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began. The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close on Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).



Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday’s second round of voting in what is seen to be France’s most important election in decades.

Former economy minister Macron‘s team has already complained about attempts to hack it systems during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

READ MORE: Le Pen vs. Macron: A look at France’s presidential contenders

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

In February the Kremlin denied that it was behind any such attacks, even though his camp renewed the charges against Russian media and a hackers’ group operating in Ukraine.

READ MORE: 2 suspected Islamist radicals charged in thwarted pre-election attack in France

In its statement on Friday, En Marche! said that the documents released online only showed 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 seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk,” it added.</s>FRANKFURT/PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) - French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a "massive" computer hack that dumped its campaign mails online 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of it was genuine.

In a statement, Macron's political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

"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 statement said.

An interior ministry official declined to comment, citing French rules which forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, and which took effect at midnight French time on Friday (2200 GMT).

Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began. The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close on Sunday at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Opinion polls show independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday's second round of voting, in what is seen to be France's most important election in decades. The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 percent of the vote.

Former economy minister Macron's team has complained in the past about attempts to hack its emails during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

In February, the Kremlin denied that it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron's camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers' group operating in Ukraine.

In its statement on Friday, En Marche! said that the documents released online showed only the normal functionings of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow "doubt and misinformation".

"The seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk," it added.

The French presidential election campaign is not the first to be overshadowed by accusations of manipulation via computer hacking and cyber-attacks.

U.S. intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of Hillary Clinton's Democratic campaign to influence the election on behalf of Donald Trump, her Republican rival who went on to win the U.S. presidency.

On Friday night as the #Macronleaks hashtag buzzed around social media, Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the National Front, asked on Twitter; "Will Macronleaks teach us something that investigative journalism has deliberately killed?"

Macron spokesman Sylvain Fort, in a response on Twitter, called Philippot's tweet "vile". (Reporting by Eric Auchard in Frankfurt and Michel Rose and Bate Felix in Paris; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by Sandra Maler)</s>EVE OF FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF VOTE In France, the campaign team of presidential forerunner Emmanuel Macron says it has been hit by a massive hacking attack. 47 million voters are due to head to the polls tomorrow. In a statement, the Macron campaign said their movement has been the victim of a massive hacking incident which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information. Macron’s campaign said the stolen information showed documents relating to the normal functions of a presidential campaign mixed with faked ones in a bid to sow doubt and misinformation. The French interior ministry is refusing to comment citing rules which forbid any commentary that may influence an election which came in to force late last night.</s>French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign says it has been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its campaign mails online, a day and a half before voters go to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting, on Friday.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or if any of them were genuine.

In a statement, Macron’s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked.

“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 statement said.

An interior ministry official declined a Reuters request for comment, citing French rules which forbid any commentary liable to influence an election, and which took effect at midnight French time on Friday (22:00 GMT).

Comments about the email dump began to appear on Friday evening just hours before the official ban on campaigning began.

The ban is due to stay in place until the last polling stations close on Sunday at 8pm. (18:00 GMT).

Opinion polls suggest independent centrist Macron is set to beat National Front candidate Le Pen in Sunday’s second round of voting, in what is seen to be France’s most important election in decades.

The latest surveys show him winning with about 62 percent of the vote.

Former economy minister Macron’s team has complained in the past about attempts to hack its emails during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

In February, the Kremlin denied that it was behind any such attacks, even though Macron’s camp renewed complaints against Russian media and a hackers’ group operating in Ukraine.

In its statement on Friday, En Marche! said that the documents released online showed only the normal functionings of a presidential campaign, but that authentic documents had been mixed on social media with fake ones to sow “doubt and misinformation”.

“The seriousness of this event is certain and we shall not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy be put at risk,” it added.

The French presidential election campaign is not the first to be overshadowed by accusations of manipulation via computer hacking and cyber-attacks.

US intelligence agencies said in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic campaign to influence the election on behalf of Donald Trump, her Republican rival who went on to win the US presidency.
France's electoral commission orders French media not to publish contents of Emmanuel Macron's leaked campaign emails to avoid influencing the presidential election, warning journalists could face criminal charges for publishing the material.