Hackers launched a ransomware attack on several Paris museums including the Grand Palais, an Olympics venue. It is the latest cyber attack on institutions during the Games, though France's national systems security agency says it will not impact the event.
The Grand Palais, which usually hosts major art exhibitions and has been the site for the Olympic fencing and Taekwondo events, is one of 40 museums targeted by the ransomware attacks.
Over the weekend hackers targeted the system that centralises financial data from the stores and boutiques of museums around France, blocking access to it and threatening to release the data if the institutions did not pay a ransom in cryptocurrency.
The French National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI) told the Parisien newspaper that the attacks do not affect the “information systems implicated in the continuity of the Olympics and Paralympics”.
The Grand Palais confirmed that it was a victim, but did not provide details. The Louvre, which was initially reported as having been targeted, said it was not.
The Paris cyber crimes police unit has opened an investigation into the attacks.
At the end of July, days after the start of the Olympics, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had announced that nearly 70 cyberattacks linked to the Games had been foiled.
(with AFP)
