The Senate website had been inaccessible since mid-morning Friday, a blockage claimed by the pro-Russian hacker collective NoName, which had already attacked the National Assembly site in March.
“Access to the Senate website has been disrupted since this morning, our team is fully mobilized to remedy the malfunctions”, tweeted the Senate around 11:30 a.m., without further comment.
“It is obviously a denial of service attack, overwhelming the site with requests,” cybersecurity expert Nicolas Hernandez, president of Aleph Networks, told AFP.
NoName claimed responsibility for the attack on its publicly accessible Telegram channel around 10:20 a.m., with a message in Russian and English criticizing France’s support for Ukraine.
“We have read in the press that France is working with Ukraine on a new aid plan which may include weapons, as well as statements by Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna” and “we have blocked the site of the Senate French,” writes NoName.
At the end of March, the site of the Assembly had been blocked for several hours by an attack claimed by the same collective, for the same reason.
NoName, created in March 2022, is one of some 80 pro-Russian hacker collectives targeting institutions in countries that support Ukraine, including Western European countries, said in late March. Nicolas Quintin, chief analyst of the Thales threat analysis team, which brings together around fifty experts worldwide.
France, one of their regular targets, has seen several such attacks in recent months.
On Wednesday, the websites of several French town halls were also attacked by Russian “hacktivists”.
The hackers targeted the computer services company Abtel, based in Nîmes, which hosts the site of several town halls, including Bry-sur-Marne (Val-d-Marne), Juziers in the Yvelines and Ambérieu-en-Bugey in the Ain.
The hackers broadcast in Cyrillic on the Bry-sur-Marne site “pro-Russian propaganda messages, namely Respect Russia! Otherwise we will continue to make war on you”, detailed the Val prefecture to AFP. -de-Marne.
These pro-Russian collectives have flourished since Russia invaded Ukraine. They act without seeking a ransom, unlike traditional hackers.
05/05/2023 13:23:25 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
