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A Massive Cyber Attack Disrupts Operations Across Numerous French Municipalities
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
A “large-scale cyber attack” has taken down local government services in several French municipalities since the night of Tuesday, April 9. Local media reported that municipal workers who reported to work on Wednesday were instructed not to switch on their computers or use other devices.
“Before and during the Olympics, French authorities should prepare for a surge of cyber-attacks that will probably greatly vary in sophistication, impact, and underlying goals,” said Dr. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb. “Script kiddies and newbies from hostile countries may apply their basic skills to massively attack the most unprotected targets, like websites of small municipalities that don’t even have an IT budget, let alone a cybersecurity one.”
Kolochenko also warned that sophisticated nation-state actors could exploit the Olympics to target critical national infrastructure while the overwhelmed French cyber authorities focus on securing the sporting event.
“On the other side, while French law enforcement agencies are overloaded with Olympics’ security, nation states and professional cyber mercenaries may well try to exploit the distraction and ballooning shortage of resources to compromise governmental and military systems to damage critical national infrastructure (CNI) or steal top-secret information,” said Kolochenko.
He requested the French government to “urgently allocate additional resources to the understaffed agencies to reduce the risk of a major, nation-wide cyber incident.”
Meanwhile, France’s cybersecurity officials are closely working with their American counterparts to counter Olympic-related cyber threats, including those from state-sponsored actors. Read Full Article
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