US hacked Sarkozy staff computers, French magazine says

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http://www.france24.com/en/20121121-usa-hack-sarkozy-computers-france-security-elysee-paris

Between the first and second rounds of the French presidential election in May this year, high-ranking staff members of incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy came under cyber attack from the US, French weekly L’Express reported on Tuesday.

The report, which reveals dangerously weak levels of cyber protection in the presidential palace, has left the French authorities not only alarmed, but also questioning their security relationship with the US.

Questioned by L’Express, US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said only that “the US has no stronger ally when it comes to security than France”. ANSSI, the French Network and Information Security Agency, refused to comment on the story.

Complex program, simple hack

According to the magazine, the program used to retrieve the data closely resembles that of the Flame malware, an infamous virus dreaded by security experts. It was employed for an extensive espionage operation targeting Iran in 2010, supposedly orchestrated by the US. In May, Russia’s leading IT security authority Kapersky described the program as “the most complex and functional known to date”.