Map to list them all and protect them with cyber security. The Déclic Association, a network that links digital and IT services to communities and government agencies, posted a map online in January of this year listing all cyberattacks involving these entities. It shows all the attacks on local governments, inter-municipalities, unions, public hospitals, fire and rescue services (SDIS) since 2019.
Because data on cyberattacks is rarely readily available, as Le Courrier des maires points out, Declik therefore relies on incidents counted by the local press, which no doubt leaves some of them elusive. A valuable list nonetheless, as the number of cyberattacks against public authorities has increased: against the city of Caen (Calvados) on 26 September, the hospital of Versailles (Yvelines) on 5 December, or the community of communes of Chalos Toursan (Landes) in January. It should be noted that the cases listed are quite varied, as they include both phishing and ransomware, spear-phishing (social engineering-enhanced phishing), or data theft.
As of January 27, 2023, the map shows five regions, nine departments, 31 agglomerations or communities of municipalities, 78 city halls and 36 hospitals, clinics or fire departments that have been the targets of cyberattacks since 2019.
Local governments and hospitals are among the preferred targets
“If one day the community doesn’t want to be one of those hotspots, they should at least make sure they have a modern workstation, antivirus, outsourced backup,” warns Emmanuel Vivet, president of Déclic, in an interview with the Gazette. des Communis. Presented on January 25 in Hauts-de-France in front of “sixty communities, mostly inter-municipal”, the map would have opened the eyes of some of the officials present. “As soon as I show the density of dots on the map, I notice a certain awareness, he is happy. Since we say that they are worried, in fact, everyone is already concerned.
In its annual Cyber Threat Report, the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi) noted that local governments were the second most common target for attackers (23% of ransomware processed or transmitted by Anssi in 2022) after VSE, SME and ETI . (40%), but ahead of health care facilities (10%). The agency claimed that the hackers are now targeting “providers, vendors, contractors, regulators and their broader ecosystem of targets” as well as their firewalls, routers and edge devices to attack. their victims.”
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