Pro-Russian hackers have claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that disrupted package deliveries by France's national postal service, La Poste, just days before Christmas, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The Paris prosecutor's office stated that the cybercrime group Noname057 claimed the attack, and French intelligence agency DGSI has taken over the investigation. The group has been linked to other cyberattacks in Europe, including incidents around a NATO summit in the Netherlands and on French government sites.
La Poste confirmed that a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack knocked its central computer systems offline on Monday, with issues persisting into Wednesday morning. Postal workers were unable to track package deliveries, and online payments at the company's banking arm were also disrupted.
The attack struck during La Poste's busiest season; the company delivered 2.6 billion packages last year and employs over 200,000 people. France and other European allies of Ukraine have accused Russia of waging a campaign of 'hybrid warfare' to undermine support for Ukraine, with the AP tracking over 145 incidents including sabotage, assassinations, and cyberattacks.
