Eleven channels associated with the French-language global television network TV5Monde went offline late last night after an “extremely powerful cyber attack”.
According to the network’s director Yves Bigot, the network said it was “hacked by an Islamist group” as ISIS logos and markings could be seen on some TV5Monde social media accounts.
The outage began around 10 pm Paris time and network teams were still working to restore the service more than five hours later. In addition to its 11 channels, TV5Monde also temporarily lost control of its social media outlets and its websites.
David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said: “This is another example of the threats posed by hacktivism. Stealing money or confidential data is not the only motive behind attacks – sometimes the purpose of an attack is to make a political or social point. Unfortunately the rise of such attacks is indicative of society’s increasing reliance on the internet.
“The problem is that today such attacks can be set up cheaply and easily, from almost anyone, whether that be a competitor, a dismissed employee, socio-political protesters or just a lone wolf with a grudge. As a result, we’ve seen the volume of targeted attacks rapidly increase in recent years. No matter how big or small an organisation is, the reality now is that everyone is at risk from a cyber attack, so all organisations need to be vigilant. As with other forms of cyber attack, attribution is not an easy thing to determine.”
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