France's national post office hit by suspected cyberattack

"Four days before Christmas, La Poste said on Monday that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, had rendered its online services inaccessible. Customer data was safe, it said, but mail distribution, including parcels, had been slowed. French media reported that customers wanting to send last-minute parcels or collect items from post offices were being turned away."

"The group's banking service, La Banque Postale, said on social media that the incident was affecting access to online banking and to the mobile app. Card payments at in-store point-of-sale terminals were still functioning, as were ATMs, it said. Online payments also remained possible but had to be authenticated via text message, it said."

"The incident came a week after the French government was targeted by a cyberattack that disrupted the interior ministry, which is responsible for national security. A 22-year-old suspect had been detained in relation to that incident, French media said. The interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said the suspected hacker had extracted several dozen sensitive files and obtained access to data relating to police records and wanted persons. He blamed imprudence at the ministry for the incident."

France's national post office and its banking arm experienced a distributed denial of service attack that rendered online services inaccessible four days before Christmas. Customer data remained secure, but mail distribution and parcel deliveries were slowed, with some customers turned away at post offices. La Banque Postale reported disruptions to online banking and its mobile app, while card payments in stores and ATMs continued to function; online payments required SMS authentication. Operational teams were mobilised to resolve the outage. No group immediately claimed responsibility. A separate government cyberattack a week earlier led to a suspect's detention and alleged extraction of sensitive police files.

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