Hackers target the French Ministry of Justice and demand a ransom in exchange for secret documents they obtained
The French Ministry of Justice was subjected to a cyber attack by a group of "hackers" who said that they had obtained the secret ministry files and would be published if they did not receive a ransom.
The official Agence France-Presse news agency, quoting multiple sources, reported that the French Ministry of Justice was subjected to an unknown-scale cyber attack on Friday, and an investigation was opened, according to Reuters.
The report quoted a source close to the investigation as saying, "There was something, but not to a significant degree, that no criminal files were affected."
The hackers claim to have infiltrated the computer systems of the Ministry of Justice, and stated that they closed the Ministry's files and would publish them if the government did not pay.
A group known as LockBit 2.0 posted a message saying it had closed the ministry's files and would publish it on February 10 if the government failed to pay a ransom.
The scale of the attack was not clear, and no information was released regarding the ransom request.
Experts say ransomware attacks on central government ministries are rare.
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