French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Source: AFP
NUDE pictures of former French first lady Carla Bruni were used to break in to the computer systems of dozens of diplomats, it emerged today.
The shocking security breach was first discovered at the G20 summit in Paris in February 2011 and may be ongoing.
"To see naked pictures of Carla Bruni click here" said a message sent to those attending, who included finance ministers and central bank representatives.
Ms Bruni, a former supermodel who became President Nicolas Sarkozy's third wife in 2008, was well known for taking her clothes off in her early career.
This prompted many to open an attachment which turned out to be a 'Trojan Horse' with an embedded virus, although all recipients could see were the X-rated photographs.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy may have been embarrassed by nude pictures being released soon after their marriage but those picture have now been used to embarrass many others. Source: AP
Once accessed, it infected the computers of senior officials as well as forwarding the offensive email on to others.
"Almost everybody who received the email took the bait," said a government source in Paris, saying that this included representatives from the Czech Republic, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary and Latvia.
Mr Sarkozy was first embarrassed by nude pictures of Ms Bruni surfacing shortly after their marriage, while they were staying with the Queen at Windsor Castle during a state visit to Britain.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was a supermodel before marrying the former French president. Source: AFP
Ms Bruni, who still uses her maiden name in her career as a pop singer, later changed her image from a Paris sex kitten into a demure politician's wife.
The so-called phishing attacks are thought to have originated in China and were aimed at extracting information.
The attacks are still being investigated, and nobody is yet sure what information was extracted.
America is thought to have been the main target of the scam.
The cyber attack on the Paris G20 summit took place before the 6th G20 summit in Cannes, in the south of France, which involved heads of government.
There have been a number of similar attacks in France, leading the country to be proactive in cyber defence.
A recent White Paper on Defence and National Security proclaimed cyber attacks as "one of the main threats to the national territory" and "made prevention and reaction to cyber attacks a major priority in the organisation of national security".
This led to the creation of the French Agency for National Security of Information Systems in 2009.
Mr Sarkozy, a conservative, lost the presidential election to the Socialist Francois Hollande in 2012 and is now dealing with a range of corruption charges.
Despite all this, his supporters insist he may challenge to become head of state again in 2017.
Ms Bruni is continuing with her career as a singer.
