2024-08-06 02:03:43
Cybercriminals attacked in the middle of the Olympic weekend. On the night of August 3 to 4, 2024, the director of information systems of the Grand Palais site noticed unusual activity in the computer systems and raised the alarm that a ransomware attack was underway. Ransomware or “ransomware” in English refers to malicious software which encrypts, makes completely unreadable, the data of a computer, server or network of a company or a local authority.
The goals of hackers? The computer system which centralizes financial data from the brands that are among the forty museums in France (including the Louvre). In a sophisticated strategy, the attackers demanded a ransom in cryptocurrencies. They use a well-known double-factor mechanism: they will first sell the victim the key to change the data, the key to gain access again. But if the target has a way to restore its backups and refuses to pay, they pull a second lever: the threat of publishing the siphoned data or reselling it to the highest bidder. This is the case here because the hackers threaten to distribute the encrypted data if the victim does not contact within 48 hours.
Assigned to cybercrime squad (BL2C), an investigation was opened for “an attack on an automated data processing system, extortion by an organized gang and a criminal group with the intent to commit a crime or misdemeanor punishable by five years of imprisonment”.
According to our information, ANSSI, which oversees the cyber security of the Olympic Games, has been alerted to the incident and is supporting the article. He confirmed that “this incident does not affect the information systems involved in the running of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
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