Britain, Germany beefing up cyber security ahead of key elections
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LONDON: Britain and Germany were already beefing up cyber security ahead of key elections even before the hacking attack on France's Emmanuel Macron, months after Hillary Clinton was caught in the online crosshairs.
Clinton recently reiterated her view that Russian hacking of her campaign's emails was partly to blame for her defeat in last year's US presidential election to Donald Trump.
"If the election had been on October 27, I'd be your president," the defeated Democratic candidate told a charity luncheon last Tuesday.
In France, going to the polls Sunday in a presidential run-off election between Macron and far-right Marine Le Pen, hacking reared its ugly head at the 11th hour.
Shortly before midnight Friday frontrunner Macron was the victim of a "massive and coordinated hacking attack".
His staff described the release of internal documents, including thousands of emails and accounting documents, as an attempt at "democratic destabilisation".
The files were reportedly stolen weeks ago during one of "an intense and repeated" series of cyber-attacks against Macron since the launch of his campaign.
Taking note of the events in the US and in France, intelligence authorities in Britain and Germany are taking steps to prevent cyber-attacks ahead of their own hotly-contested elections. (APP)
