Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council Paralyzed by a Cyberattack
Sunday, July 5, 2020: The Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council has just been hit by a cyberattack. All of its information systems are down.
Its website states that it was “the victim of a major cyberattack over the weekend.” All of their information systems are inaccessible: email, networks, and platforms are paralyzed.
However, public services continue to operate and are answering phone calls. Technical teams are doing their best and working as quickly as possible to contain this cyberattack and restore normal service in Eure-et-Loir.
What kind of cyberattack affected the department?
According to the Chartres Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Council was also the target of aransomware cyberattack.
Claude Térouinard, President of the Departmental Council, suspects that this malware may have “entered the computer system via the telework network.” (Source: L’Écho Républicain).
The Departmental Council has not provided any further details. It is not yet known whether any data has been leaked. An investigation, led by Section J3 of the 3rd Division of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office—which specializes in cybercrime—is currently underway.
Eure-et-Loir is recovering from the cyberattack
Nearly two months after the cyberattack, the Departmental Council is reassuring its users. Everything is finally back to normal. Stéphanie Delapierre, acting secretary general of services, explains: “It still took us eight weeks to recover, but with the support of the National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and various partners (the prefecture, CAF, etc.), we were able to carry out the local government’s essential functions, such as paying benefits and our employees’ salaries.” (source: L’écho républicain).
It appears that the entire information system, including its online services, was restored as of Monday, August 31.
The primary targets of cyberattacks
This is not the first time a local government has been targeted by cybercriminals. In fact, the Grand Est region was recently the victim of a large-scale cyberattack. Increasingly common and highly lucrative, thistype of attack is known asa ransomware attack. In April 2018, the town of Nogent-le-Rotrou was also hit by a cyberattack, the consequences of which were:
- Elected officials were unable to vote on certain parts of the operating and administrative budgets.
- Loss of data related to the community budget, amounting to six months of lost work.
- Ransom demand.
- Traumatic stress among law enforcement officers…
To achieve their goals, hackers have various “methods” at their disposal for gaining unauthorized access to an organization’s computer system:
- phishing or spear phishing.
- smishing.
- The fake website.
- A malicious USB drive left lying around somewhere.
and this list is by no means exhaustive.
Especially since their imagination knows no bounds! The malware, meanwhile, infects and locks down the entire computer network. Access to data and/or the network is encrypted. The hacker group then demands a ransom in exchange for a decryption key to restore the organization’s systems.
