Notorious cybercriminal group Lockbit 2.0 claims to have attacked the French Ministry of Justice.
He threatens to publish 9,800 pages on the darknet on February 10 if no ransom is paid by that date.
The ministry remains evasive on this announcement and indicates that it "
immediately organized itself to carry out the necessary checks, in conjunction with the competent services in this area
".
The journalist from
acteurs publics
, Emile Marzolf, specifies on his Twitter account that this cyberattack was “
confirmed to him from an internal source at the ministry
”.
This news comes a day after the publication of a report by the Court of Auditors pointing out the faults of the Ministry of Justice in terms of computer security.
This report highlights
“significant weaknesses in the governance and organization of the ministry’s cybersecurity, particularly in terms of the allocation of human resources and budget allocation
”.
A very virulent group
Other French organizations have also been targeted by Lockbit 2.0, such as the City of Saint-Cloud.
On its Twitter account, the municipality mentioned on January 24 that it had been the victim of a cyberattack “
unprecedented in its intensity, which could not be avoided despite the reinforced security measures
”.
But there is no mention of Lockbit 2.0 in the report.
“
This group of hackers has been really aggressive since October.
It mainly targets companies in France, Germany and Italy
”, analyzes Guillaume Maguet, cybersecurity expert at Deep Instinct.
Lockbit 2.0 has already targeted other French organizations in the past, such as the security company Thales or the Schneider Electric site in December 2021. But for the expert, several gray areas need to be clarified: “
For now , we do not know if they are preparing a massive data leak or if it is only a pressure blow before the presidential election.
»
