Long-term information piracy targeting French companies and institutions

Macron calls for strengthening the fight against terrorism in the Sahel region

Macron considered that "the international mobilization for the Sahel has never been, in essence, as strong as it is now."

Reuters

Yesterday, French President Emmanuel Macron, in his speech at the G5 Sahel summit held in N'Djamena, stressed the need to strengthen the fight against extremist groups and restore state authority in that region, while long-term information piracy targeted French companies and institutions.

In detail, Macron, who spoke via video link from Paris, said that a year after the "Pau" summit (southwestern France) "we succeeded in achieving actual results in the border triangle" between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and the most prominent organization that was targeted (ISIS in the Greater Sahara) "He lost his dominance, and suffered huge losses."

However, he indicated that the two organizations affiliated with "Al Qaeda" (the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims) and (the Massena Liberation Brigade), whose leaders are still feeding an extremist program, are still a threat to the Sahel region, promising to "strengthen action", in an attempt "to eliminate these two organizations." .

The French President did not mention reducing the number of the French "Barkhane" operation to combat extremists, which currently includes about 5,100 personnel in the Sahel region.

Macron praised the decision of Chadian President Idriss Deby, which he announced, the day before yesterday, to send 1,200 soldiers to the "border triangle" region, saying, "It is a strong and courageous decision that strengthens the power of the Group of Five in the Sahel region."

On the other hand, the French president considered that "the international mobilization for the Sahel region has never been in essence as strong as it is now." He thanked the European countries participating in the new gathering of special forces "who therefore accepted to share the risks of the sacrifice our soldiers bear." .

In addition to the military aspect, the French President stressed the need to "give a horizon to the inhabitants of the Sahel region", calling for a "second leap, which is to restore security and services to the population," and demanding "a stronger payment at the state level", in order to re-impose its authority in the abandoned lands in Region.

He concluded, “It is through collective action on the ground that we will succeed.

France will continue to bear its share, because I know that every party is here to mobilize.

This comes at a time when the French Authority for Information Systems Security (ANSI) announced, the day before yesterday, that a piracy operation penetrated between 2017 and 2020 electronic networks belonging to “many French bodies and institutions”, through the French Sentreon program, which includes among its clients major companies and a ministry Justice.

The French authority said that the hackers exploited a vulnerability in surveillance software sold by the Centurion Group, whose services are used by major companies, such as the Electricity of France, the defense group Thales, and the oil and gas giant "Total".

According to Centreon, its clients also include the French Ministry of Justice and city authorities such as Bordeaux.

"This campaign has mostly affected information technology providers, especially web hosting service providers," the French National Authority for Information Systems Security wrote in a report.

It said it discovered a "back door" in several Centreon servers that gave hackers access to their networks.

"This campaign bears many similarities with previous campaigns attributed to an infiltration group named Sandworm," a group of internet hackers believed to be linked to Russian military intelligence, the report said.

The report was released the day before yesterday, and included technical details about how hackers accessed Centrion's servers.

"It reminds us of methods previously used by the Sandworm Group, which is linked to Russian intelligence," Jerome Belloa, a specialist in information security at Wifston Corporation, told AFP.

Onsi added that the infiltration occurred from 2017 to 2020.

This long period indicates the presence of attackers "who are very secretive, perhaps with the aim of stealing information or espionage," Bilwa said, adding that it would take time to fully appreciate the size of the attack.

"I have taken note of the information published by Annecy," Centrion told "AFP."

We are doing our best to evaluate the technical information presented in the report. ”

US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have said that Russia may have been behind a massive hack discovered recently against the US company SolarWind, which sells software widely spread on government and private computers.

The Departments of State, Trade, Treasury, Homeland Security and Defense, and the US National Institutes of Health have since acknowledged that they have been hacked.

A statement issued by three US security agencies in early January said that about 18,000 SolarWind clients from the public and private sectors were vulnerable to penetration.

The three agencies said they believed the breach was "and is still an intelligence gathering effort" rather than an attempt to steal corporate secrets or harm IT systems.

Since responsibility for hacking attacks is difficult to determine, intelligence agencies and information security professionals often avoid pointing the finger of blame for sure.

They rely on the evidence left behind by the hackers and the methods used to enter networks to try to identify the attackers.

Macron stresses the need to "give a horizon to the residents of the Sahel region", calling for a "second leap represented by restoring security and services to the population."

Sahel leaders conclude their summit and demand the rich countries write off their debts

The leaders of the G5 Sahel countries ended their seventh summit, the day before yesterday, in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, by calling on the international community, international bodies and rich countries to expedite the writing off of the debts of the Sahel countries, in order to help them meet the great challenges they face due to the increase in terrorism, poverty, and lack of financial resources. To develop the coast.

"We stress the importance of canceling the group's debts in order to move forward in implementing its priority investment program, an embodiment of the security and development approach that our group has adopted since its inception," Chadian President Idriss Deby said in a speech that concluded the summit.

He stressed that this meeting "resulted in more solidarity and mutual trust between the leaders of the five countries and their peoples."

He emphasized that this "is not only at the coastal strip level, but also at the level of the African Union, which strives to promote peace, unity and coexistence in this geographical area."

He said that the Chadian presidency of the Group of Sahel states will continue to implement the roadmap announced at the French "Bo" summit.

The General Assembly of the Alliance announced that the results enabled 550,000 people to be supplied with electricity, one million and 600,000 others with sanitation, and five and a half million by delivering drinking water.

The alliance announced that the financial pledges of its members increased from seven billion euros to 17 billion euros.

Nouakchott - D.A.

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