Tokyo-based IT firm Trend Micro has claimed that Russian hackers are now targeting the French presidential election by launching a new cyberattack against the campaign offices of candidate Emmanuel Macron.
The report, released by the company on Tuesday, found that the same hackers behind the U.S. presidential election hacking are now trying to attack the French presidential election, finding the same digital fingerprints as the suspected Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and others.
The research team did not reveal any of the “possible results of the infiltration of the Macron campaign.”.
A cyberspying group called Storm Storm targeted Macron's campaign in March and April.
“There are a lot of things that suggest that the group behind the Macron hacking was also responsible for the DNC breach, for example. We found similarities in the IP and malware used in the attacks,” Rik Ferguson, vice president of Trend Micro’s security research program, told the Washington Post.
"We can't say for sure whether this was directed by the Russian government, but the group behind the attacks certainly appears to be pursuing Russian interests," Ferguson added.
According to the Washington Post report, France's government security agency ANSSI confirmed the cyber attacks against Macron.
However, the government limited itself to blaming Russia for any kind of attack, it may be possible that “other high-level” hackers are behind the attack and are simply copying their style so that everyone blames them (Russain Hackers) for the attacks.
According to the researchers, "hackers created multiple email addresses on a fake server with the URL onedrive-en-marche.fr , operated from computers with IP addresses in several European nations, including Britain."
