France indicates directly: Grom military intelligence is behind cyber attacks

The head of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot stated on Tuesday that “for several years, the service of Russian military intelligence (GRU) has been using the method of cyber-offensive actions against France, called APT28”. For the first time, France accused the Russian intelligence of these attacks.

In the commentary on the X, the head of diplomacy stated that from 2021 the purpose of the attacks was about ten French entities (https://tinyurl.com/mxda2fzs).

In a video recording, published on the minister's profile on platform X, the French authorities warn that APT28 is “a new face of a quiet war led by Russia against France.” This group infiltrates the French network to collect information, as well as – “to destabilize society and cause distrust” – it was emphasized in the recording.

It explained that the purpose of hacking activities is the media. It was reported that “in 2015 Russian hackers tried to manipulate public opinion by conducting an attack on the TV5 Monde television channel and pretending to be the Islamic State.” The purpose of those activities that caused a break of several hours in the TV5 Monde broadcast was to “cause panic in France, affected by terrorist attacks.”

As added in the recording, during the presidential campaign in 2017, APT28 took part in the storage and spread of “thousands of documents”. The goal was to “sow doubts and influence public opinion.” It was hoped that it would be possible to manipulate voters.

It is about publishing in 2017, just before the second round of presidential elections, thousands of e-mails of Macron's colleagues, applying for re-election. The data leak did not have much influence on the result of the vote – the Macron leading in the surveys then significantly beat the candidate of the extreme right Marine Le Pen, obtaining 66 percent. votes.

The threat “is still active”, and from 2021 APT28 has increased the number of its goals. They are “ministerial institutions, but also arms companies, economy and finance sectors” – notified in the recording.

The APT28 Group, also called “Fancy Bear”, was accused by the American intelligence services of an attempt to interfere in elections in 2016. The authorities of European and United States imposed sanctions on persons and entities related to APT28, which – in the opinion of these countries – tries to destabilize public opinion in these countries.

From Paris Anna Wróbel (PAP)

AWL/ Szm/