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. (AP)
Nude pictures of former French first lady Carla Bruni were used to break in to the computer systems of dozens of diplomats.
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.
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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.
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.
Sarkozy was first embarrassed by nude pictures of Bruni that surfaced shortly after their marriage, while they were staying with the Queen at Windsor Castle during a state visit to Britain.
Read more about the shocking security breach at news.com.au.
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