The number of cyberattacks is increasing. This Wednesday, the gendarmes of Pays de la Loire organized a prevention day at the regional council, open to companies in the morning and to individuals in the afternoon. And it’s not just multinational corporations that are affected by this scourge. Marie-Agnès Mandin runs a VSE (very small business) in Vendée and testifies: she has been the victim of cyberbullying and hackers on several occasions.
Death threats received by email
It all starts with an email that she receives like a stab in her professional inbox: “I could send my men to shoot you if you make the slightest mistakeshe read aloud. It’s up to you to think.” And this is only an excerpt from the text of about fifteen lines that she received by email.
Marie-Agnès Mandin runs a fishing boat construction company in Vendée with 20 employees. In April, a hacker claims the sum of 1,000 euros. “Honestly, I took it lightly at first, then I thought it was still death threats that were being made, she confides. But I didn’t give in to the threat.” Instead, she contacted ANSSI (the National Authority for Security and Defense of Information Systems) and decided to file a complaint.
I no longer send my invoices by email but by post
Already the victim of another online scam in February which caused her to lose 1,700 euros, she had to change your habits. “We have to backpedalshe resigns herself. I no longer send my invoices by email but by post. From now on, we have become very vigilant in the company, and we prefer checks to transfers. Even if the Internet is essential, behind the scenes is really dangerous.”
Also president of the Confederation of SMEs of Vendée, she encourages her colleagues to be vigilant, and to lodge a complaint if necessary. It is also difficult to assess the number of cyberattacks in France and in our departments of Loire-Atlantique and Vendée. In France, one in two companies has already been a victim according to the estimates of the cyberspace pole of the national gendarmerie.
Hackers who become professional
A figure on the rise according to Régis Dubrulle, ANSSI regional delegate for Pays de la Loire. “This is explained initially by the professionalization of the attackers, he explains. There are today hackers who are more and more organized and who become experts on certain subjects. The second reason is that companies are more computerized, with a lot of data that interest hackers who will manage to monetize it.”