14 DAY TRIAL // The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been the target of fraudsters, reported a local paper on Sunday. According to Le Journal du Dimanche, Mr. Sarkozy's bank account has been hacked and small sums of money have been withdrawn without his authorization. French Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs, Luc Chatel, confirmed the security breach.
Specific details about the incident are scarce, but it has been speculated that the hackers are most likely not from France. It is probable that the persons responsible for this breach were not aware of the high level profile of the account owner, otherwise they would have realized that when discovered, the incident would generate a lot of attention from both the public and the authorities. It is hard to believe that the hackers are so confident that they would have exposed themselves to all this heat intentionally or just for a small sum of money.
It is also believed that the attackers hired unsuspecting local mules (people paid to physically withdraw the money). Mr. Luc Chatel commented that “this was a classic case of data piracy, likely by one or several low-level swindlers” and warned that "the swindlers will be punished". He added that the bank in question could possibly suffer penalties if they didn't take all the steps that could have prevented the incident. According to him, Internet banking security in France must be improved in general and he exemplified that “when one gives personal information to one's bank, it is not so the information is used for marketing or recruiting purposes, or that it should be divulged here or there”.
Other high profile individuals have recently been the target of hacking attempts or scams. Such is the case of US Alaska Governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Plain, who had her personal e-mail account hacked, or US presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose name has been extensively used in spam campaigns. Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, commented that "what's interesting is how the cyber crooks managed to steal the password to access what should have been a secure account. This latest incident highlights the fact that no-one is safe and that everyone should take the necessary precautions to avoid ending up in the same boat as Sarkozy and so many others".