Largescale cyberattack hits five French municipalities impact may last months

pppLeadershipppCybercrimeppNationstateppElectionsppTechnologyppCyber DailyppClick Here Podcastpp Free Newsletterpp Five municipalities near the river Loire on the west coast of France have been hit by a largescale cyberattack on their shared computer servers leaving staff without the ability to access documents or get on with their work pp Services are currently down across SaintNazaire MontoirdeBretagne Donges La Chapelledesmarais and Pornichet according to a statement on the SaintNazaire website Clustered around a seaport they have a combined population of around 100000 pp Officials have warned local media that recovery may take months Crisis meetings are being chaired by the mayor of SaintNazaire and are currently being held twice a day at 11 am and 5 pm Frances cybersecurity agency ANSSI is providing support pp According to the SaintNazaire announcement the attack took place on Tuesday night Officials at the affected local authorities have no access to their workspaces files or business software Local media reported that when staff arrived on Wednesday morning they were instructed not to turn on their computers and not to use their mobile phones to check their inboxes pp Mayor David Samzun warned the attack will have significant consequences Email and phone systems used by the municipalities are currently down It is not clear what has been taken down as a security precaution and what services are down as a result of the attack pp The nature of the incident has not been confirmed nor whether the attackers were able to steal residents data At this stage the origin of the cyber attack is unknown as is the duration of the blockage the local authority stated pp The incident follows a ransomware attack on a French township in Brittany back in January which led to the temporary shuttering of all community services pp It comes after data on more than 33 million people in France approximately half the population was compromised in a cyberattack at the end of January according to the countrys privacy watchdog ppAlexander Martinppis the UK Editor for Recorded Future News He was previously a technology reporter for Sky News and is also a fellow at the European Cyber Conflict Research InitiativeppPrivacyppAboutppContact Uspp Copyright 2024 The Record from Recorded Future Newsp