Cyber ​​attack targeting French government services

• The French government suffered a large-scale cyberattack, disrupting several domestic services.
• According to reports, a group of pro-Russian hackers carried out the attack through a denial-of-service operation.

According to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's office, multiple French government agencies have been hit by an unprecedented cyber attack. The government announced the establishment of a special crisis center to facilitate the restoration of affected services. The attack began on Sunday night, and access to affected services was restored on Monday afternoon.

A hacker group called Anonymous Sudan, long seen as pro-Russian, claimed responsibility for the attack, which was a denial-of-service operation that flooded the website with data, overwhelming its operational capabilities. The group has already attacked multiple targets in 2023, including the Israeli Prime Minister and Swedish SAS Airlines.

The group appears to have targeted a national interagency network that connects thousands of government websites. French cybersecurity agency ANSSI announced that it has introduced filtering measures to combat cyber attacks.

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Last week, France's defense minister issued a warning about cyberattacks due to concerns related to EU parliamentary elections and the Olympic Games, which will be held in Paris from July. The French government has accused Russia of waging an online misinformation campaign against Western countries supporting Ukraine's war effort.

The French government is pushing to improve its cybersecurity infrastructure following a number of ransomware attacks since 2021, including a 2023 attack on a health insurance company that compromised the personal data of more than 33 million people in the country.

The incident raises further red flags about the growing involvement of state actors and the number of cyberattacks that have plagued government agencies around the world in recent years.

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