French cyber agency reveals suspected Russian hacks

France's national cybersecurity agency said Monday it had discovered a hack of several organisations that bore similarities to other attacks by a group linked to Russian intelligence. It said the hackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability in monitoring software sold by French group Centreon, which lists blue-chip French companies as clients, such as power group EDF, defence group Thales, or oil and gas giant Total. The French ministry of justice and city authorities such as Bordeaux are also named as Centreon customers on the group's website. ANSSI had discovered "a backdoor" on several Centreon servers which had given the hackers access to its networks.

The report, entitled "Sandworm Intrusion Set Campaign Targeting Centreon Systems", was released on Monday and gave technical details about how the hackers gained access to the Centreon servers. The attack "recalls methods already used by the Sandworm group linked to Russian intelligence, but it doesn't guarantee that it's them", Gerome Billois, a cybersecurity expert at the IT security firm Wavestone, told AFP. The hacking took place from 2017 to 2020, ANSSI added. This long period of time suggested attackers who were "extremely discreet, probably with the aim of stealing information or spying," Billois said, adding that it would take time to see the full scale of the attack.

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