The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation after the hacking of several dozen small websites in France on which Islamist propaganda messages were posted on Sunday, he announced Tuesday, October 27 to AFP.
The investigation opened for "
attacks on an automated data processing system
" and for "
public apology for an act of terrorism
" was entrusted to the center for the fight against digital crime (C3N) of the gendarmerie in connection with the local investigation services.
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The hacks emerged over the weekend, as calls for a boycott of French products increased in several Muslim countries in reaction to Emmanuel Macron's defense of the freedom to caricature after the assassination of Samuel Paty.
Messages such as "
Victory for Mohammed, Victory for Islam and Death to France
" or "
Operation launched by Muslim hackers against France for insulting the Prophet Muhammad and publicly desecrating Islam
" were posted on the page. hosting several websites.
Another example, a montage representing Emmanuel Macron dressed as a pig was visible on the sites of associations of retirees, shops or small town halls, AFP noted on Monday.
An alert had been launched Sunday on Twitter by the national device for assistance to victims of cybermalveillance, indicating that a "
wave of cyber attacks in disfigurement
" targeted "
many French sites
".
These low-level attacks are carried out automatically through software that detects and exploits flaws in servers and websites.
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Tuesday, the census of victims was still in progress and their number was not known precisely.
"
Several dozen websites, perhaps a hundred, have been affected,
" Gérôme Billois, cybersecurity specialist at Wavestone, interviewed AFP said on Monday.
These hacks targeting a multitude of targets in France are not necessarily linked to a single network, but could be the result of a windfall effect, according to a source familiar with the matter.
