Bonum Certa Men Certa

Web Site of French Senator Richard Yung Cracked Just Days After Criticising the EPO

The statement posted by Yung before his site got cracked (via Google Cache, which still prevails)

Richard Yung site before crack
A "snapshot of the page as it appeared on Feb 22, 2017 14:09:52 GMT." (Google Cache)



Richard YungSummary: A French politician finds himself red-faced after criticising the EPO, as his site gets flagged as malicious, gets blocked, and his blog post (speech) about the EPO vanishes

MR. Richard Yung has been in politics for a long time. He also has a pretty decent Web site with a good mobile version, alternating backgrounds etc. We wouldn't classify his site as something shoddy.



Previously, a Croatian site that was rather prominent in its criticism of Battistelli's 'bulldog' got cracked, whereupon we decided to preserve some of its content (especially critical documents about Battistelli's 'bulldog'). Later on, perhaps just months apart, SUEPO and us came under DDOS attacks (it happened to us several more times over the years, in addition to tens of millions of cracking attempts). We are not suggesting that Yung's site was targeted in connection with the EPO (we linked to his site just before the crack and shortly afterwards, just after we received nasty warnings for attempting to access the site). We are just pointing out what is known. SUEPO noticed the same thing and wrote about it, at one point bypassing his site and linking directly to the video from the French government.

“The EPO would not hesitate to state this. I was informed on good authority that this was a hacking incident and apparently it has been confirmed by Senator Yung himself.”
      --Anonymous
"Dubious incident," one reader of ours called it, as "Senator Richard Yung's website got attacked and hacked [...] FYI, Last Friday SUEPO published the article "[Richard Yung] Question orale sur la dégradation du climat social au sein de l'OEB: réponse du Gouvernement - Richard Yung, senateur des francais de l'etranger" on their website under the column "February 2017 press articles" however I noticed when clicking on the link the following warning message was generated: “malicious website” , “website may harm your computer” and “This is a known dangerous website. It is recommended that you do NOT visit this site.”"

We noticed the same thing. I was aware of it and I actually wrote to him about it. I was unable to confirm whether he really got cracked or just simply restored from a recent backup that did not have his most recent posts (the latest post was missing at the time, yielding a "page not found" error).

We did some informal asking around, for no politician likes to publicly admit carelessness, defacement, sabotage etc. (unless it's Battistelli, in which case even mild tampering with a bicycle is gigantic news and a prelude to a national emergency at Eponia).

“I heard from a reliable source which requires not to be identified that Yung's site had been attacked with a technique that makes it referenced as a dangerous site by Google, hence the blockade that we all experienced (even from within the French Senat !”
      --Anonymous intermediary
One person told us that "other people confirmed this incident. I did some investigations on the same day and found out that Yung's website was available however the article including the video about the parliamentary question on the social climate of the European Patent Office had miraculously vanished. Pure coincidence? The EPO would not hesitate to state this. I was informed on good authority that this was a hacking incident and apparently it has been confirmed by Senator Yung himself."

We asked this reader to ask around for any more information about it because we needed an absolutely undeniable statement. Yung seems tight-lipped about it; he didn't respond to me.

We were waiting and waiting for more input and eventually we received this:

Yung apparently confirmed the hack to my contact, however I need to double check it. Would be nice to have a written statement about this. I'm on it and let you know asap ;)

[...]

Here is the reply from an intermediary:

"I heard from a reliable source which requires not to be identified that Yung's site had been attacked with a technique that makes it referenced as a dangerous site by Google, hence the blockade that we all experienced (even from within the French Senat !"


That is all the information that we have at the moment. It would be valuable to know what this technique actually was as here in Techrights the cracking attempts habitually speed up to the point where they choke our back-end servers, with nearly 100 attempts per second (these attempts were previously traced back to Chinese networks).

"It's hard to believe in coincidence," one person wrote about this, "but it's even harder to believe in anything else."

Recent Techrights' Posts

LLM Slopfarm: A Site's Last Incarnation Before Throwing in the Towel, Going Offline Permanently
A lot of coverage that claims to be about Finland is chatbot-generated nonsense or poorly-plagiarised work
LLM Slop (Lots of It Spewed Out by Microsoft) Versus Linux
Microsoft is a very, very evil company. It doesn't mind destroying the Web if there's a chance it'll make a buck in the process or mess up people's brains (in Microsoft's favour).
Slopfarms (Sites That Only Ever Publish LLM Slop) Are Killing Google News
pair of slopfarms still propped up by Google News
Microsoft's Serial Strangler's Law Firm Has a Long History of Fronting for People Who Do Bad and/or Illegal Things
Whose terrible idea was this?
Links 25/03/2025: Clownflare’s Slop and Bounties on Fake Patents
Links for the day
 
Links 26/03/2025: Healthcare Cuts and Turkey's Own "2025 Project" (Culling Opposition)
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical Pays IDG to Spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)
this seems a tad exploitative and reminds us of the time Novell kept telling companies that using anything other than SUSE was dangerous
Gemini Links 26/03/2025: GTD, Zenshuu, and Geminispace Community
Links for the day
Links 26/03/2025: Media's Failures, Arrests of Journalists, Limitations of End-to-End Encryption
Links for the day
Novell and Microsoft Apologist/Booster Bruce Byfield Writing About the FSF is a Recipe for Problems
Totally not shoehorning some agenda
Looking Forward to the Fall of UPC and Revocation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement, Which Was Always Illegal and Unconstitutional
We'll try to keep abreast of any progress in this case
Slopwatch: Google News, LinuxSecurity.com, and the General Demise of the Web
many supposed or so-called "news" pages are just spewed out by some chatbots (or tools which help plagiarise original articles without getting caught; detection gets harder)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Links 25/03/2025: Terrace Workbench and Spellcheck in LibreOffice on FreeBSD
Links for the day
Let Them Eat 'Apps'
Go Appless
Linux Runs Almost Everything, But They Almost Never Tell You This (No Marketing Budget)
Only about 1% (or at most 2%) of the Linux Foundation's budget goes towards Linux; a lot is routed towards Bill Gates and Microsoft promotion
Free Software Community Folks Are Closer Together Than the Cliques and Opportunists Rallying Around "Open Source" (Openwashing, Marketing, Conniving)
Generally speaking, freedom-loving geeks learn to reject morbid elements and trolls, who end up expelled
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) Might Get 'Forked' Soon
Someone who read our series has already taken a leading role
IBM Layoffs in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2025
Should Free software people trust such a secretive company?
Roku Will 'Lead' Attempts to Abolish the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Court (UPC), Which Represents EPO Corruption and Lobbyism Spreading Upwards Inside the EU
When bribery buys policies and courts, even illegal policies and courts
Growing Poverty Rates in the United States of America (or Elsewhere) Beneficial to GNU/Linux Adoption
Toxic politics around the world, including the US, may mean weaker economies
European Patent Office (EPO) Illegally Turning to Slop Behind Closed Doors, Staff Objects to This Hidden Catastrophe
Who stands to gain from all this and at whose expense?
Gemini Links 25/03/2025: Relaxation, Literary "Movements", and Gemini Mentions
Links for the day
After US Government Funding Cuts the Centralisation of the Web (Especially Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt) is at Risk
They try to pull the plug on open protocols with decent encryption available (unless it is outsourced to third parties)
Links 25/03/2025: Putin Sends Children to Battle, 23andMe Drowns as People's Highly Personal DNA Data Floats
Links for the day
When Microsoft Folks Who Literally Strangle Women Try to Strangle Microsoft Critics
Speaking to Court staff yesterday, they too are shocked about those SLAPPs
Martinique: Windows Down to All-Time Low
we cannot expect Windows to ever recover
Anticipated in 2018: Lilie James & Location tracking, Googlists complained
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 24, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 24, 2025
IBM (and Red Hat) on a Fast Train to Nowhere
What is the future of Fedora when IBM keeps removing its leadership?
Press Reports Say Almost 10,000 Western IBMers Laid Off
We've been trying to verify/corroborate this somehow
Gemini Links 24/03/2025: "Live Off the Land" and Life Without YouTube
Links for the day
Planet Ubuntu (or Ubuntu Planet) is LLM Slop
Reading chatbots' output is bad use of time
Days Ago yewtu.be Found a Workaround That Made Invidious Work Again. Then Google Broke All the Instances (Again).
"Youtube changed something again, so if a video does not play, it's because of that."
The European Patent Office (EPO) is Slowly Killing Its Own Staff; All It Cares About Is Money
The Office hasn't been run by a scientist for about 18 years already
Links 24/03/2025: US Detaining Innocent People, F-35 Contracts Suspended Due to Hostilities
Links for the day
Cellphones (Mobile Phones) in Classrooms
A recent study confirmed that people's intelligence has dropped in recent years/decades
Is the FSF Being 'Trolled' by Microsofters Pushing C# (Microsoft)?
Who stands to benefit from training people to use and spread Microsoft?
Matthew J. Garrett is "Former Microsoft Researcher", According to Microsoft's Serial Strangler
Their argument is something along the lines of, "what Roy published damaged my career prospects, so I want Roy to pay me...
Links 24/03/2025: Political Catchup and Environmental Concerns
Links for the day
Windows Has Now Fallen to Rather Ridiculous 3% "Market Share" in Iraq (Windows Was Measured at 100% Back in 2010)
Iraq is not a place where Windows can make a comeback
Gemini Links 24/03/2025: Working With Music and Unconscious Influence
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 23, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 23, 2025