INTRODUCTION
France’s government faces a crippling cyber onslaught, with over 300 official websites paralyzed and numerous state entities impacted. The attack strikes a critical blow just ahead of the pivotal European Parliament election in June and the upcoming July Olympic Games. Amidst heightened tensions, France grapples with the fallout of this brazen cyber assault.
The cyber strike followed a caution from the PM’s defense advisor, flagging the European Parliament election and Olympic Games as potential high-value targets. Adding fuel to the fire, French President Emmanuel Macron recently proposed European troop deployment to Ukraine. These developments underscore the gravity of cybersecurity threats, urging heightened vigilance and proactive measures to safeguard critical events and international stability.
Although France24 reports that a security source informed AFP that the attacks “are not currently attributable to Russia,” the cybercriminal group Anonymous Sudan, suspected of having Russian support, has claimed responsibility for the attack. “Prime Minister Gabriel Attal described the attack as one that used known cybercriminal tactics but had an “unprecedented intensity.”
ANONYMOUS SUDAN BEHIND THE ATTACK, WHO ARE THEY?
Anonymous Sudan, a group of hackers which is considered by cybersecurity experts as pro-Russia, claimed responsibility for the attacks in online posts. The French prime minister’s office and digital safety agency wouldn’t comment on the claim or provide details of what was targeted or what damage might have been caused.
A French official said they were denial-of-service attacks, a common type of cyberattack that involves flooding a site with data to overwhelm it and knock it offline.
THE DEPTH OF THE ASSAULT ON FRANCE
The recent attack on France’s governmental digital infrastructure targeted the State Interministerial Network (RIE), a vital network connecting 1 million public sector agents and 14,000 state sites. Utilizing a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack where a website is inundated with a massive surge of traffic, often orchestrated through botnets or infected networks of computers, or utilizing paid infrastructure the assault affected 177,000 IP addresses and over 300 French state web domains.
The deluge of traffic led to the shutdown of government websites, prompting French authorities to initiate efforts to restore services and regain public access. The Prime Minister’s office confirmed the activation of a “crisis cell” to implement countermeasures, ensuring that “the impact of these attacks has been mitigated for most services, and access to state websites has been reinstated.”
