Emmanuel Macron promises one billion euros against cybercrime
French President Emmanuel Macron during the presentation of his plan against cybercrime in Paris on February 18, 2021. AP - Ludovic Marin
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After the cyberattacks which have reduced two hospitals to “all paper” in France in recent days, Emmanuel Macron confirmed on Thursday a plan of one billion euros to strengthen the cybersecurity of sensitive systems.
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For one hour this Thursday morning, Emmanuel Macron listened to doctors and executives
from the hospitals of Dax and Villefranche-sur-Saône
tell him how hackers completely paralyzed their establishment on February 8 and 15.
Patient records, telephony, surgical devices, medication management, appointments, bed and doctor allocation, everything has been blocked.
Post-it notes, hand-made service charts and appointment books have somehow taken over, but operations have been unscheduled and patients sent to other hospitals.
Teams from Anssi (National Information Systems Security Agency) on site have since been trying to rebuild healthy computer networks and recover data, part of which was protected in backups.
It will probably take weeks to regain normal function.
Hospitals, like all administrations, have "
strict instructions to never pay
" ransoms, the Elysee recalled on Wednesday, while these attacks quadrupled in 2020, of which 11% targeted hospitals.
Strengthen the cybersecurity sector
The executive has planned to allocate one billion euros, including 720 million public funds, to strengthen the cybersecurity sector, triple its turnover to 25 billion euros in 2025 and double its workforce.
"
Many actors are attacked every day and are the subject of ransom demands, without saying it
", stressed Emmanuel Macron.
"
What you have suffered shows both our vulnerability and the importance of stepping up and investing
."
He praised the forthcoming creation of a “Cyber Campus” at La Défense with some sixty of the main public and private players in the sector, which must create a “
security ecosystem, more united and more efficient
”.
The objective of this plan will also be to strengthen training in this area and by 2025 to double the number of jobs in this strategic sector.
Macron wants to accelerate the French cybersecurity strategy
Marie Casadebaig
The networks that launch ransomware attacks are only a dozen, according to Guillaume Poupard, director of Anssi, recalling the recent successes in Ukraine against the Emotet and Egregor networks, thanks to international police cooperation with strong French involvement. .
(
With
AFP)
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