Nude images of the former First Lady of France were used to lure Euro Diplomats
While Nicolas Sarkozy continues to tease the French public into a state of excitement at the thought of his possible return to the presidential stage, images of his lovely wife Carla Bruni continue to generate interest amongst red-blooded male Europeans and it’s with this knowledge that Chinese hackers have been able to further their own cause.
Using a phishing technique, they sent emails containing links claiming to direct their star-struck victims to images of Mrs Sarkozy in her birthday suit.
Anyone with any internet savvy will know to be very wary of emails bearing such gifts, but apparently, staff from the departments of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary and Latvia fell for the trick.
Once they clicked on the link, the hapless diplomats opened a breach that allowed the Chinese pirates to access their computers. This was discovered back in 2001 when staff from the American online security firm FireEye found certain anomalies on several computers during a meeting in Paris, just before the G20 meeting in Cannes.
Apart from the fact that they’re Chinese, the identity of the web pirates remains unknown, as are their objectives in this exercise. The ministers concerned were unwilling to expand on the story and the diplomats eager to catch a view of a naked French lady didn’t say whether or not they got an eyeful for their trouble.