French finance ministry computers were spied on by a Trojan Horse concealed in a PDF document. G20 documents compromised.
In one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks ever launched on a government, hackers broke into French finance ministry computers in an effort to collect sensitive information relating to France’s presidency of the Group of 20 industrialised nations.
Hackers also tried to access the computers of senior officials in the office of president Nicolas Sarkozy, prime minister François Fillon, and in the foreign ministry, but these attempts failed.
At least 150 work stations were compromised by the attack which focused on particular computers in the Treasury Ministry.
The hackers are believed to have used a Trojan Horse concealed in a PDF file, which when opened infected the computers.
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