A New cold war that hides its name ? In a context of tensions between Russia and Europeas part of War in Ukrainefor the first time, France has officially attributed Russian military intelligence the paternity of cyberattacks against French interests. This is the sabotage of the TV5 World TV in 2015 and e-mails hacking the team Emmanuel Macron campaign During the 2017 campaign.
Russian military intelligence has targeted France for several years
“The Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU) has been deploying a cyber-offensive operating mode called Apt28 for several years.“, denounced Jean-Noël Barrot, the head of French diplomacy In a message posted on X.
“He has targeted ten French entities since 2021“He said, assuring that”In cyber space, France observes, blocks and fights its opponents“. Repeated accusations later at a meeting of the UN Security Council in Ukraine.
“We condemn these cyber attacks with the greatest firmness, they are unworthy of a permanent member of the Security Council and contrary to the framework set by the United Nations. They must therefore stop without delay“, insisted the minister traveling to New York as part of the French Council Presidency.
Apt28, a Russian group specializing in cyber attacks
Apt28, acronym of Advanced persist Threat (Advanced persistent threat), is a well-known Russian player in the United States and European Union countries who have already imposed sanctions on individuals or entities linked to this group which attempts to destabilize, according to these countries, their public opinion.
Facing The growing intensification of the Russian hybrid threatFrance has decided to make public its latest investigations collected in a report by the National Agency for Information Systems (ANSSI), which details The attacks between 2021 and the end of 2024. The previous report was published in October 2023.
“The operating mode of attack Apt28 (east) publicly attributed by the European Union to Russia“underlines the ANSSI.”Since 2021, Apt28 has multiplied targets: ministerial entities, local authorities, armaments and aerospace companies or economic and financial sectors“, explain the French authorities in a video intended to raise awareness of this threat and published by Jean-Noël Barrot on his X account.
-A sports organization linked to the organization of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games was also targeted by APT28, said the minister.
When the Russians hacked Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign
Before that, explains the video, “In 2017, in the midst of a presidential election, Apt28 participated in a massive hacking operation. Objective: to sow doubt and influence public opinion“.
“Thousands of documents are stolen and disseminated hoping to handle voters, but the maneuver fails to really impact the electoral process“, We continue, in reference to the case”Macron Leaks“. Hacking and distributing thousands of internal documents from the entourage Future President Emmanuel Macronjust before the second round of The 2017 presidential electionhad not finally prevented her from being elected against the far right candidate Marine Le Pen.
Also known as Fancy Bear, APT28 had been accused by US intelligence of having interfered in 2016 in 2016 in the presidential election to promote Donald Trump By putting tens of thousands of messages from the Democratic Party and relatives of his rival Hillary Clinton online.
Fancy Bear, the Russian group that targets NATO countries
Technically, Fancy Bear targets personal email boxes in particular in order to recover data, emails or access other machines from a system, sometimes with administrative rights. For more than a year, from March 2022 to June 2023, he had used a security fault of the Outlook email from Microsoft which enabled a system to be entered without any user interaction.
Last September, several international intelligence services, including the German authorities, had warned of the risks of Cyberattacks aimed at NATO countries led by Fancy Bear.
“Apt28 is also used to exert constant pressure on Ukrainian infrastructure in the context of the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine“, Laying the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.
