French Election Front-Runner Macron Targeted By Same Cyberespionage As DNC

PARIS (CBS/AP) -- The campaign of French presidential front-runner Emmanuel Macron says it has fought off a series of cyberespionage attempts dating back to December, adding meat to previous allegations that it was the subject of an electronic eavesdropping campaign.

The campaign's digital chief Mounir Mahjoubi says a series of sophisticated phishing operations have been thwarted over the past couple of months.

Phishing, which typically works by using lookalike emails to trick people into giving out their passwords, was a key vector for the hackers that compromised Democratic Party officials in the United States last year.

Mahjoubi spoke after reports quoted Tokyo-based TrendMicro as linking the phishing to Pawn Storm, one of the various names used to describe Russian cyberespionage operations.

"It's serious," Mahjoubi said Monday, "but nothing was compromised." Mexico says vehicle carrying radioactive material stolen.