PARIS (AP) — A pro-Russian hacking group claimed responsibility for a major cyberattack that halted parcel deliveries at France’s national postal service just days before Christmas, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement to The Associated Press that French intelligence agency DGSI took over the investigation into the hacking after accusations were made by cybercrime group Noname057.
The group has also been accused of launching other cyberattacks across Europe, including around a NATO summit in the Netherlands and on a French government website. It was the target of a massive police operation in Europe earlier this year.
France’s national postal service La Poste’s central computer systems were crippled by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber attack on Monday that had not been fully resolved as of Wednesday morning, the company said.
Postal workers were unable to track package deliveries, and online payments at the company’s banking arm were disrupted. It is a major blow to La Poste, which last year delivered 2.6 billion parcels and employed more than 200,000 people during its busiest season of the year.
France and Ukraine’s other European allies claim Russia is waging a “hybrid war” to sow divisions in Western societies and undermine their support for Ukraine. The Associated Press has tracked more than 145 incidents, including sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are increasingly draining police resources.