A cyberattack on the French national post office has disrupted mail and parcel delivery and shut down its online services days before Christmas. Customers of the group’s banking arm are also currently unable to access their online banking app.
La Poste was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DdosS) attack on Monday, which overwhelmed its servers with targeted requests so that they become inaccessible.
The group said that this has had no impact on customer data, but it has “rendered its online services inaccessible”, disrupting package delivery days before Christmas, the busiest time of the year for La Poste.
Sending letters and greeting cards is still possible, but anything requiring tracking or access to the computer systems is not.
Customers of La Banque Postale can no longer access their online banking application, although “card payments on in-store payment terminals and transfers via WERO remain available”.
Online payments are still possible using SMS authentication, and banking transactions can be carried out at post offices, as well as cash withdrawals from ATMs.
"Our teams are mobilised to resolve the situation quickly,” the bank said in messages posted on social networks.
Other attacks
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
It comes a week after a group of hackers targeted the email servers of the French interior ministry, compromising files containing criminal records .
A known hacker has been detained in connection to the attack, which Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said was the result of “carelessness” and poor “digital hygiene” within the ministry.
Last week, prosecutors said the counter-intelligence agency was investigating a suspected cyberattack involving software that allegedly would have allowed remote control of a ferry operating between France, Italy and North Africa.
Nuñez strongly suggested that Russia was involved, stating that “foreign interference very often comes from the same country”, although no official attribution has been made.
France and other European countries that support Ukraine have accused Russia of waging a hybrid war through cyberattacks, disinformation, sabotage and other hostile actions.
(with newswires)
