Cyberattacks of “unprecedented intensity” have targeted several French government institutions just months before the Paris Olympics but have been contained, the prime minister’s office said Monday, writes France24*.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s office said several state bodies were targeted but did not provide details. “Many ministerial services were targeted” from Sunday “using familiar technical means but of unprecedented intensity,” Attal’s office said.
The latest cyberattack to hit France follows a warning from the PM’s defence adviser just last week that the Olympic games in July and European Parliament elections in June could be “significant targets”. Several hacker groups claimed responsibility for the attacks on Telegram, a messaging app, including one calling itself Anonymous Sudan which said it had launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on French government network infrastructure.
Super election year 2024 will deliver many major elections all across the globe. Billions of people will go to the polls to decide their next political leaders, and the outcomes of these and other elections could shape geopolitics for the coming years. With so much at stake, concerns are mounting about election interference. Apart from the commonly used Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks that could block voters from accessing key information, other threats, including ransomware and phishing, can cause serious consequences. However, in many ways, the biggest threat to election integrity could be from disinformation campaigns, including deepfakes.
EU institutions are often targeted by DDoS attacks, where hacktivists are using this technique to raise their voice as opposed to serious impacts that could be achieved by ransomware attacks or data breaches. The attack in France that started on Sunday night is different, namely in terms of its intensity. Multiple groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks. With the Olympic games in sight, France may become increasingly targeted, enforcing the need to protect the games and all other stakeholders. With the help of the Cyber Solidarity Act, the EU is creating a platform to better detect, prepare and respond to cyberthreats and incidents.
*ESET does not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of this information.
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