March 28, 2024

Taylor Daily Press

Complete News World

Several French municipalities fell victim to a pro-Russian cyber attack |  outside

Several French municipalities fell victim to a pro-Russian cyber attack | outside

A pro-Russian cyber attack hit the website of some French municipalities. This was reported by the French news agency. The hackers targeted the Abtel digital information service that runs the websites.

Bry-sur-Marne and Juziers – both not far from Paris – were among those affected. The commune of Ambriou-en-Bougé, near Lyon, was also a victim of the cyberattack. On the Bry-sur-Marne website, hackers posted “pro-Russian propaganda” in Cyrillic.

According to Jean-Philippe Navarro, Abtel’s business manager, 45 of the thousands of websites they run were affected by the attack last weekend. Those sites used the same management system that the company acquired six years ago and offered to customers. About thirty municipalities have used this type of website, but it is unclear exactly how many victims of the cyber attack.

“Not effective anymore”

Navarro admitted that “this system is no longer as effective as it used to be.” “There is no fix for security bugs. We’ve been warning customers for months or even years that the stakes were high. But to build a website from scratch, you need a big budget.”

Currently, half of the affected sites are using an earlier version. The Abtel manager says the hackers managed to replace the homepage of five websites, including Bry-sur-Marne. The mayor of the already affected municipality of Charles-Alangol has filed a complaint against unknown persons. According to the public prosecutor’s office in Créteil, the cybercrime unit in Paris is involved in the investigation.