The National Control Commission for the Election Campaign for the Presidential Election (CNCCEP) [official website, in French] on Saturday cautioned [press release, in French] media outlets against sharing information leaked from an alleged hack of a presidential candidate. The hackers have claimed to have stolen an estimated 9 gigabytes of data from the Emmanuel Macron [official profile, in French] campaign and the Macron-backed En Marche Party [official website, in French], although this information is yet to be verified. The leak spread with “#MacronLeaks” on social media. The CNCCEP warning reminded that French law forbids interference into elections and that a journalist may face criminal charges if they release any report on the information to the public. The CNCCEP stated [French translation]:

On the eve of the most important election deadline for our institutions, it calls on all actors present on websites and social networks, first and foremost the media, but also all citizens, Of responsibility and not to relay these contents, in order not to alter the sincerity of the vote, not to break the prohibitions laid down by the law and not to expose oneself to the commission of criminal offenses.

Additionally, as the laws prevent continued campaigning, Macron is prohibited by law from speaking on the alleged hacking until the election is over.

The number of instances of hacking, specifically as it relates to the political and/or governmental spectrum, has increased substantially in recent years posing significant social and legal implications [JURIST backgrounder] that transcend international borders. Last month Roman Seleznev, the son of a member of the Russian Parliament, was sentenced [JURIST report] to 27 years in prison for hacking into more than 500 US businesses, and stealing and selling millions of credit card numbers. Earlier the same month the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced [JURIST report] that it had effectively disrupted the Kelihos botnet, a network of thousands of virus ridden computers used to glean personal information and login credentials by distributing malicious software through spam emails. The week before that announcement Peter Yuryevich Levashov, long thought to be the creator of the Kelihos botnet, was arrested [Reuters report] in Spain on charges purportedly related to US claims that Russia interfered with the November 2016 US election. In March the Senate held hearings [JURIST report] on seeking to determine the level of Russian involvement in the election, one week after the FBI Director James Comey [official profile] confirmed [JURIST report] it had begun investigating Russian interference. Earlier the same month the DOJ announced [JURIST report] indictments for four Russian hackers in March related to an email hacking incident.