France faces cyberattack disrupting postal service and banks amid Christmas rush
A suspected cyberattack hit France’s national postal service and its banking division on Monday, causing widespread disruption to mail deliveries and online banking just as the country enters the peak Christmas season.
La Poste, the postal service, said a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack made its online systems inaccessible. While customer data was reportedly unaffected, the attack delayed package and mail deliveries, leaving holiday shoppers frustrated. At a Paris post office, employees had to turn away customers trying to send or collect parcels.
La Banque Postale, the bank affiliated with La Poste, also faced outages, blocking customers from approving payments or conducting other banking tasks online. The bank redirected approvals via text messages and said its teams were working to resolve the problem swiftly. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The incident follows a week in which France’s government was targeted by a cyberattack affecting the Interior Ministry, which oversees national security. Authorities said a hacker accessed police records and other sensitive data, leading to the detention of a 22-year-old suspect.
Separately, French prosecutors are investigating a cyberattack plot involving software that could have allowed remote control of an international passenger ferry’s systems. A Latvian crew member is in custody on suspicion of acting on behalf of an unidentified foreign power.
French officials and European allies of Ukraine have increasingly accused Russia of waging “hybrid warfare” against them, using cyberattacks, sabotage, disinformation, and other covert operations that are difficult to trace directly.
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