Bouygues Construction hacked. What should we remember?

The construction department of the French group Bouygues was the victim on Thursday 30 January of a computer hack that has affected its activities for 5 days now.

While the computer attack slowed down the company's activities, it did not paralyze it. 

This article will also interest you: Bouygues constructions is a victim of more than one computer attack with ransomware

After being hit by the cyberattack, Bouygues Construction first made a statement in the newspaper Le Monde to confirm the rumors that had begun to spread. But the company preferred this stage not to give more details at this level. It was on 31 January, the day after the computer hack was discovered, that she issued a press release detailing the case "A ransomware-type viral attack was detected on Bouygues Construction's computer network on 30 January. As a precautionary measure, information systems have been shut down to prevent any spread. »

According to information from the newspaper Le Monde, the cyberattack had managed to infect the headquarters of the company, which is located in Guyancourt. Nearly 3,200 employees of the company would have received on the same day as the discovery of the piracy, i.e. the 30 January, an SMS alert in which it was marked an attack alert viral and "a break from the "DataCenter Challenger," which refers to this seat Bouygues Construction. according to the Daily.

As far as the French group's employees abroad are concerned, they had to go through a work stoppage due to the inability to access the mail company's professional electronics. In this regard, the latter noted that that: "Business continues in the meantime, construction sites are running and there is no no paralysis of activity. the next day, the company noted in its press release: "At this time, the teams are fully mobilized for a return to normalcy as soon as possible, with expert support. The equipment is gradually being re-released service after being tested. The operational activity of the construction sites is not undisturbed to date. »

We clearly know that Bouygues construction was affected by a ransomware attack. However, the management of the company did not want to give more details about the hackers' claims IT and the strategy put in place to address this problem. Nevertheless, the French company confirms that the computer attack is still in the process, and that computer systems are still struggling to to function properly. "We were forced to cut off access to servers to limit the risk of spread," the group explains. According to le Parisien media, it was actually demanded for a ransom by the cybercriminals. however, the sum remains unknown as the company prefers not to not communicate about it.

"We saw the example of Altran, who was content with two press releases during the crisis before a feedback from the CEO at the end of the year. In France, we prefer to remain discreet, while abroad we see examples of more transparent communication, such as the example of Norsk Hydro. Garance Mathias explained at the Panocrim conference in Clusif, pointing out that French companies tend to communicate as little as possible about these types of crises, which is not in any case a good communication strategy.

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