(Paris) The Grand Palais, which hosts events of the Olympic Games in Paris, and around forty museums in France were victims of a ransomware attack this weekend, we learned on Monday from a police source.
Cybercriminals targeted the system enabling the “centralisation of financial data” of businesses located within these locations on the night of Saturday to Sunday, the source said.
The attackers demanded a ransom and threatened to release the encrypted data, she said.
Contacted by AFP, the French Information Security Agency (ANSSI) confirmed that it had been “alerted to the incident”. It “does not affect information systems involved in the running of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”, it specified.
On the museum side, the Grand Palais confirmed that it had been targeted by a cyberattack but did not wish to provide details on the subject.
Initially mentioned as being among the targets that could have been hit, the Louvre denied having been hit in the evening.
According to the police source, an investigation has been opened, in particular for attacks on an automated data processing system and organized extortion. It has been entrusted to the Cybercrime Brigade (BL2C) of the Paris judicial police.
Ransomware exploits security vulnerabilities in a company or individual to encrypt and lock up their computer systems, demanding a ransom to unlock them.