Macron campaign suffers data breach on eve of French runoff

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is the subject of a "massive and coordinated hacking operation," his campaign said Friday evening, an attack timed in advance of Sunday's runoff vote between Macron, the centrist frontrunner, and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen.

Some 14.5 gigabytes of content in about 70,000 files — including emails, business documents, and more — were leaked via a text storage site called Pastebin. The Macron campaign says falsified files were mixed among the real ones "to create confusion and misinformation," comparing the attack to allegations of Russian attempts to manipulate the U.S. presidential election by leaking information from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Le Pen's staff said they have also been subject to "regular and targeted attacks," a claim that has not been independently confirmed. Both campaigns are prohibited from making any further public statements until voting is over, as French law mandates campaigning cease Friday at midnight through Sunday evening, when results are announced.

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