Ransomware Attack On French Ministry of Justice
France’s justice ministry was hit by a cyber attack on Friday 28th January and an investigation has been launched. Cyber criminals though to be using Lockbit 2.0 ransomware claim to have breached the Ministry's systems encrypted its files and are threatening to make public the files stolen from the government organisation.
The criminals have reportedly threatened that the stolen data will be published if the ransom is not paid by 10 February.
While the extent of the attack remains unclear, the Ministry said in a statement it had become aware of the alert and immediately took steps to carry out the necessary checks, in conjunction with the relevant competent departments, without providing further information about the operation's scale. No other information has been released about the ransom demand by French government sources.
Other French organisations have been targeted with the malware in the past. Earlier this month the Lockbit 2.0 group published data from French defense and security firm Thales on its website and the site also contains data from French energy Schneider Electric dated December 2021. The Lockbit 2.0 gang has also claimed responsibility for a similar attack on the services of Saint-Cloud’s town hall in the outskirts of Paris. French daily Le Parisien reported that the town’s mayor had already announced that he would not pay a ransom.
The cyber attack comes a day after the national Court of Auditors published a Report on the digital transformation of the justice ministry, which points out that “a lot of work remains to be done” when it comes to the security of its information systems.
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