Several French sites have been affected by a cyber attack.

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Jenny Kane / AP / SIPA

The National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi) alerted on Monday to the discovery of a computer intrusion "affecting several French entities" via the French software Centreon, which counts among its clients large companies and the ministry of Justice.

The attack, which lasted from late 2017 to 2020 "recalls the methods that have already been used by the Russian intelligence-linked group Sandworm, but that does not guarantee that it is him," said the cybersecurity specialist of the cabinet from Wavestone Gérome Billois.

The duration of the attack before being discovered suggests attackers "extremely discreet, rather known to be in the logic of the theft of data and information", he added.

Towards a data breach?

"Centreon has taken note of the information published by ANSSI this evening, at the time of publication of the report, which concerns facts initiated in 2017, or even in 2015," the Centreon company reacted on Monday.

"We are making every effort to take the exact measure of the technical information in this publication," she added.

Used by many companies (Airbus, Air France, Bolloré, EDF, Orange and even Total) and by the Ministry of Justice, Centreon software is used to monitor applications and computer networks.

"This campaign has mainly affected IT service providers, including web hosting," said Anssi.

But it can also induce an important "leverage" by exposing the data of the customers of these same providers, commented Gérome Billois, who specifies that it will take time to assess the true scale of the attack.

The case recalls the vast cyberattack attributed to Russia that targeted the United States in 2020, with hackers taking advantage of an update to surveillance software developed by a Texas company, SolarWinds, and used by dozens. thousands of companies and administrations around the world.

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