Paris chaos as cyberattack hits Olympic Games location among several museums
Forty national museums, including the Grand Palais, have been victims of a cyber attack that has seriously disrupted operations in Paris.
The Grand Palais is reportedly among the several national museums that have been victims of a cyber attack which, while not affecting the computer systems of the Olympic Games, has seriously disrupted the operation of French cultural institutions, a key part of the tourist appeal of Paris.
In the early hours of August 3 and 4, the head of IT services at the Grand Palais noticed “unusual suspicious activity”. He raised a general warning, but with “discretion” so as not to provoke any global alarm, while the Olympics continued with their fast-paced timetable.
The Grand Palais is currently being used to stage fencing and taekwondo at the Olympics in Paris, thanks to a three-year renovation project.
The anti-cybercrime brigade (Bl2C) launched an urgent investigation, noting that some thirty national museums were victims of several simultaneous attacks over the weekend.
The judges who have begun to investigate the case described the incident as: "Attacks and theft of several automated data processing systems, extortion by an organised association of criminals with the aim of committing crimes punishable by harsh prison sentences".
According to the first unofficial leaks reported by news outlet ABC, the cyber attack against the Grand Palais is a classic case of “ransomware” crime - the “kidnapping of computer data for shady purposes”.
While it has initially been mentioned among the targets of the cyber attack by police sources, the world-renowned Louvre denied being hit by the hacking, AFP reported on Monday.
The French Ministry of Interior didn't immediately share the scope of the data and information that may have been seized from the national museums.
Official sources insisted that the cyber attack incident “does not affect the Olympic Games in any way”.
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ANSSI, which oversees the cyber security of the Olympic Games, has been alerted to the incident and is supporting the entity. It confirmed that the incident “does not affect information systems involved in the running of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
Ahead of the games, Paris had been preparing for a terror attack, with the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, acknowledging that authorities had been foiling terror attacks “every month”.
ANSSI had also been on high alert, preparing for potential cyber-attacks. In 2018, major disruptions were caused by malware during the Winter Olympics in South Korea, so ANSSI’s director Vinct Strubel emphasised the importance of raising the security level.
