France Accuses Israeli Firm of Interfering in Scottish Elections

France’s cybersecurity agency has accused the Israeli tech company BlackCore of interfering in the Scottish elections earlier this year by targeting the first minister, John Swinney.

The disinformation detection agency Viginum said BlackCore had this year used proxy social media accounts to target Swinney, the Scottish National party, and the Scottish government on four occasions.

Viginum said BlackCore had focused its operations on municipal elections in France but had also targeted the mayoral elections in New York, won by Zohran Mamdani, and other countries such as Togo and Angola.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday alongside the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, Viginum’s head of digital interference, Marc-Antoine Brillant, said its investigations had identified BlackCore as the culprit but that it was still unclear who had commissioned the company.

He said: “This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France. It also appears to have ⁠been used to carry out foreign digital interference operations in other countries or regions, such as Angola, Togo, the elections in Scotland, and the 2025 municipal election in New York.”

Brillant added: “Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference.”

- Author: Severin Carrell and Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian