14 DAY TRIAL // France has recorded a massive number of cyber-attacks perpetrated by supporters of Islamic extremists that targeted websites in the country indiscriminately in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting incidents.
A total of 19,000 sites were either defaced or knocked offline through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, although it appears that none of the incidents caused serious trouble.
France faces unprecedented number of cyber-attacks
A DDoS is carried out by instructing different devices (from computers to home routers) under the control of the attacker to send packets to a specific server. When the traffic load becomes too much, the server can no longer process the data, resulting in a denial of service condition and making its services unavailable.
One of the hacker groups involved in such attacks is Fallaga Team, from Tunis, which was involved in more than 350 defacement events since the beginning of the year, all aimed at websites in France.
Among the sites targeted by Fallaga Team was the one distributing the Notepad++ open-source text editor, because the developer had launched a “Je suis Charlie” edition to show support for freedom of speech and expression.
The head of military cyber-defense unit in France, Arnaud Coustilliere, told Army Times that the flurry of cyber-incidents recorded by the country these days was unprecedented.
“What's new, what's important, is that this is 19,000 sites — that's never been seen before,” he told the publication. “This is the first time that a country has been faced with such a large wave,” Coustilliere added.
CyberCaliphate is also on the list of attackers
Other groups suspected of taking aim at the French online locations are MECA (Middle East Cyber Army) and CyberCaliphate. The latter made news headlines recently as they took over the Twitter account of the US Central Command.
It is believed that the individual that put together the CyberCaliphate group is none other than TRiCk, former leader of TeaMp0isoN hacker outfit.
In the past two days, Arbor Networks recorded more than 1,000 DDoS attacks aimed at targets in France.
French government sites are monitored at all times in order to protect them not only against this sort of incidents but also others that may have a more damaging effect.