US 'categorically' denies 'hacking computers in French President's palace' report
Sydney, Nov 22 (ANI)
The US embassy in Paris has 'categorically' denied media reports saying that the American government was behind a hacking attack against computers in the French President's palace earlier this year.
According to the report in French magazine L'Express, hackers masquerading as Facebook friends of presidential palace employees duped them into giving up internal passwords.
Hackers then used them to spread a computer worm on Elysee Palace computers in May, including one used by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief-of-staff, the report said.
The French government also played down the report in L'Express magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
According to the paper, in a statement, the US Embassy said the report was not based on facts and pointed to the article's own language that said the magazine's unidentified sources suspected the US role in part because of 'a bundle of presumptions.'
"We categorically refute the allegations of unidentified sources, which appeared in an article in L'Express, by which the US government would have participated in a cyber-attack against the French government," said the embassy statement.