Several websites of French cities and departments hacked by a pro-Russian group

Many websites of French cities and departments were inaccessible or disrupted this Tuesday, following a series of cyberattacks claimed by the pro-Russian hacker group NoName, known for its operations aimed at defending the interests of Moscow. The group claimed responsibility for these actions on its X account, claiming to act in retaliation against French support for Ukraine.

NoName also claimed attacks against the sites of the cities of Nantes, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Pau, Nîmes, Nice, Angers, Le Havre, Montpellier, as well as those of the Landes department, French Polynesia and New Caledonia, but they were still accessible on Tuesday. Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice, confirmed that the site in his city had also been targeted. However, other municipalities, such as Pau, Angers or the Landes department, have assured that they have not noticed any problem.

DDoS attacks, a simple but disruptive method

Attacks carried out by NoName are referred to as DDoS, or “distributed denial of service attacks”. This type of cyberattack consists of sending a massive flow of automatic requests to a website to overwhelm it and make it inaccessible to legitimate users. These actions, explains Benoît Grunemwald, cybersecurity expert at ESET, are intended more to create a climate of propaganda and digital insecurity than to steal sensitive data.

“This gives the impression of a climate of digital insecurity,” he underlines, recalling that this procedure is relatively simple to implement. The city of Marseille indicated that the servers of OVH, the host of its sites, activated protection mechanisms which made the platforms temporarily inaccessible.

Strong growth in attacks

This new episode illustrates an increasing trend in cyberattacks, particularly in a tense geopolitical context caused by the war in Ukraine. DDoS attacks, like those carried out by NoName, have become a common weapon in modern conflicts. They do not require sophisticated skills or significant resources, but can cause significant disruption.

Experts regularly point the finger at certain states or groups supported by governments, notably Russia and China, as being behind many cyberattacks. According to data from the National Information Systems Security Agency (ANSSI), hacking attempts targeting public and private institutions in France have seen a significant increase in recent years.

A growing challenge for the authorities

Faced with this threat, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation, entrusted to the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), to identify the perpetrators and limit the impacts of these attacks. Local authorities are called upon to strengthen their cybersecurity systems to better protect themselves against these disruptions. Although DDoS cyberattacks do not typically compromise sensitive data, their increasing frequency and impact on digital infrastructure highlights the need for increased vigilance.

Find our file on cyberattacks

Today, companies specializing in business management and administration software and cloud players, such as OpenText, AWS or Google, offer tools to prevent and prevent attacks. One increasingly common way is to reduce the use of passwords in favor of biometrics. This transformation makes it possible to reduce the risks of fraudulent access to website administration tools.