Bad luck for the town of Morlaix. The sub-prefecture of Finistère was targeted last Thursday by a computer attack, she announced on her Facebook page. More precisely, the town of around 15,000 inhabitants was the victim of a ransomware attack.
As the mayor explained to the press, the city’s two servers were encrypted by cybercriminals, who had left a ransom note behind. The municipality was, however, able to count on a very recent backup, made the evening before. But it could not yet certify that the encrypted data had not been previously stolen.
Fallen messages
The town of Morlaix alerted Anssi, the state cyber fire brigade, and filed a complaint. “The city is doing everything possible to quickly return to normal,” also specified the municipality, which suspended the use of its messaging services. On the other hand, physical and telephone reception still works.
Likewise, online services are still accessible. They are in fact hosted on a server of the urban community, which was not affected by the incident. But if the portal is still accessible, processing times may “however be longer than usual,” warns the city.
Prepare well
In the same region, the town of Betton was also the victim of a ransomware attack at the end of August. The municipality having refused to pay the requested $100,000 ransom, the attack was followed by the dissemination of the equivalent of 2% of the city’s data, for example tax notices or rent receipts.
At the start of the year, Vincent Strubel, the boss of Anssi, recalled the efforts of communities on the subject of cybersecurity. They “put in place protection and protection measures”, he stressed. A preparation which then allows you to react quickly in the event of an incident and to limit damage.