Russian activist hackers have resumed their harassment of French websites, disrupting the Agence France Presse site. These operations are initially symbolic and have no major impact on the network.
Russian hacktivists are resuming their harassment of French sites. The Russian ultra-nationalist hacker group, UserSec, attacked on March 11, 2024 the AFP website, Agence France Presse, the main source of information for many journalists in France and around the world. The agency provides numerous reports, thanks to a vast network of reporters, then taken up by other media.
At 2 p.m. this Monday, the site was unavailable after a denial of service (DDoS) attack. Only a few disruptions were reported by colleagues, before the site resumed activity less than an hour later. Journalists were able to continue to access the AFP news feed.
This method of cyber attack consists of launching connection waves directed simultaneously towards a specific site. If the number of requests is high enough, the server is no longer able to process them, and the targeted platform shuts down. This type of attack is certainly annoying, but the impact is often limited to stopping a site for a few hours.
Symbolic operations, without much impact
Other sites were targeted today, without much impact. The ultranationalist hacker collective UserSec attacks all designated enemies of the Kremlin. Most often, these operations do not have a destructive effect and aim to broadcast a symbolic message in order to frighten the population. UserSec hacked the site of French SMEs last May to broadcast messages against NATO on their homepage. Window sellers found themselves with “Fuck NATO” on their screens.
The cybersecurity company Sekoia.Io also noted in a report that the attacks in 2024 by the main hacktivist group would first target Finland – for its entry into NATO – and Italy – for its support to Ukraine.
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