The Hauts-de-Seine department in France suffered a significant cyberattack on Tuesday, May 20th. This important French department directly borders the major city of Paris in that region. The attack has effectively paralyzed all communications from the local public administration. As a precaution all telecommunications means have now been completely cut off by officials. Consequently the administration is currently operating at a much slower pace than is usual. Information technology managers of nearby communities and municipalities have also been fully alerted. The mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine Jean-Christophe Fromantin confirmed these widespread communication cuts. This incident is causing considerable disruption to essential public services for many residents.
Hauts-de-Seine department includes several key municipalities within the greater Paris metropolitan region. These areas include Nanterre Boulogne-Billancourt Neuilly-sur-Seine and also Levallois-Perret. It also encompasses the major international business district known as La Défense. The departmental council is responsible for managing local social policies and secondary schools. It also actively participates in various important regional development and infrastructure projects. Currently no official information has been provided on this attack’s specific nature. The full actual impact of this cyberattack on services and data is also unknown. The department only published a very short message on X formerly Twitter about it.
This brief message simply indicated it is suffering from an ongoing cyberattack.
The French department stated all necessary measures are now being fully implemented. These measures aim to carefully assess the complete impact of this disruptive cyberattack. Protecting valuable agent and user data is currently considered a top official priority. Restoring secure access to the network and all applications is also extremely crucial. The department’s internal information systems (IS) teams are reported to be fully mobilized. External service providers are also actively working with the IS teams on this issue. They are completely dedicated to containing and resolving this serious ongoing security situation.
The primary focus remains on achieving a safe and also secure system recovery.
This Hauts-de-Seine community had unfortunately already suffered a network intrusion back in 2023. Several other towns located within the department have also been specifically targeted by cyberattacks. These various damaging attacks have all occurred over the past three calendar years. Chaville and Saint-Cloud are two examples of such affected local French municipalities. These two towns had been previously affected by damaging and disruptive ransomware type attacks. Ransomware is a type of malware specifically programmed to paralyze computer system operations. This concerning history clearly shows ongoing cyber threats present in this French region. Such repeated incidents highlight the continuous need for very robust local cybersecurity measures.
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