Bad news for the inhabitants of Betton, in Ille-et-Vilaine. This commune of the Rennes metropolis was the victim of an “attack [informatique] scale” on the night of August 30 to 31, the city said in a statement. This ransomware attack was claimed by the Medusa gang on their blog.
Cybercriminals have, in a classic way, set up a countdown, which is due to expire on September 14. They claim 100,000 dollars to destroy the data in their possession. They had already targeted the town hall of Sartrouville, with an attack carried out ten days earlier.
Reliable backups
This cybercriminal gang, spotted in the spring of 2021, has become more active this year. As LeMagIt had spotted, he notably distinguished himself by broadcasting a video on Vimeo presenting an overview of the data stolen from one of his victims.
In its press release, the city of Betton claims to have been able to “contain” and “neutralize this incident thanks to the vigilance” of its services. The municipality of approximately 13,000 inhabitants was thus able to restore, thanks to reliable backups, its IT infrastructure and recover its data.
Back to school disrupted
Result: the identity card and passport application and delivery services are operational, as is the borrowing of documents from the media library. But school catering and leisure center registrations – while we are in the middle of the back-to-school period – were inoperative at the start of the week.
And in general, the municipal services were no longer reachable by email. This kind of attack generally results in a temporary return, more or less long, to paper and pencil. In addition to a complaint filed with the gendarmerie, the town has contacted Anssi, the state cyber-firefighter, and is relying on a specialized service provider to get out of this trap.