Hackers Target France’s Presidential Election
After witnessing a cyber-attack on US Presidential election, France is not leaving any stone unturned to protect its Presidential election from hackers.
France's Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian admitted that their website was the subject of 24,000 cyber-attacks last year.
But due to efficient security services the attack was warded off, and the minister praises his team, "tarnishing the image of the ministry as well as strategic attacks, harassment, surveillance, espionage, and even attempts to disrupt our drone systems", he said. "Thankfully, our defenses were sufficient and none of these attacks were successful."
He mentioned that every year these kind of attacks were doubling. His main concern was this year's presidential elections that could be aim for many hackers around the world.
In an interview with French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, Le Drian said that French civil infrastructure such as water, electricity, telecommunications and transport, as well as against French democracy and the media are at risk of cyber-attacks.
To prevent this, he has initiated step to set up a cyber-operations headquarters, Cybercom, which will employ 2,600 "digital soldiers" by 2019 and receive support from an additional 600 cyber experts.
He said that France is very well capable of defending itself against cyber-attacks but also able to strike if necessary, "France reserves the right to respond by all means it deems appropriate,” he said. “That could be through the cyber arsenal at our disposal but also by conventional means. Everything would depend on the effects of the attack."
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