PARIS — A pro-Russian hacker group claimed responsibility for major cyber attack It stopped the delivery of parcels by France's national postal service just days before Christmas, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
After a statement by the cybercriminal group Noname057, the French intelligence agency DGSI took over the investigation into the hacker attack, the Paris prosecutor's office told The Associated Press.
The group has been blamed for other cyber attacks in Europe, including around the NATO summit in the Netherlands and French government websites. That was the goal major European police operation earlier this year.
The central computer systems of France's national postal service La Poste were taken offline on Monday in a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, cyber attack that had still not been fully contained by Wednesday morning, the company said.
Postal workers were unable to track package deliveries, and online payments at the company's bank branch were also disrupted. It was a major blow for La Poste, which delivered 2.6 billion parcels last year and employed more than 200,000 people during its busiest season of the year.
France and other European allies Ukraine argue that Russia is waging a campaign of “hybrid warfare” to sow divisions in Western societies and undermine their support for Ukraine. AP tracked more than 145 incidents including sabotage, assassinations, cyber attacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are becoming increasingly common. depletion of police resources.
