Operator Orange was the target of a ransomware attack

During the course of the past week, it has been confirmed that French operator Orange has been targeted by a ransomware attack.

The information came about after cybercriminals claimed on their website. The immediate consequence of this is the theft of several sensitive data that belonged not only to the French operator but also to customers and business partners.

This article will also interest you: RGPD, ransomware: Clusif's concerns about communities

French society has a good reputation in terms of computer security, as the saying says, you are never too ready for danger. The computer attack referred to here is said to have occurred in early July, precisely on the weekend of the 4th. Claimed by the cybercriminal group called Nephilim. The cyberattack was also confirmed by the specialist website Bleeding Computer.

Although orange has been particularly well-known for its computer security, it has been hit by the horrors of cybercrime, and one of the most common ransomware. The specialized computer aid website, Bleeding Computer, reported on Thursday that it had received confirmation from the French group regarding a computer attack suffered on the weekend of July 4, claimed by the Nephilim group.

According to the telephone operator, the company was not directly affected by the cyberattack. Indeed, it seems that it was one of the divisions of the latter that was the target or even the victim of the ransomware. We're talking about its Orange business services division. The group of cyber criminals originally exposed what can be called their war booty stolen from Orange. Several compressed archives, in .rar format, surely containing data collected as a result of their exploits. We are talking about 350 MB of computer data that may belong to customers and business partners of the French operator. This is included of course on several companies.

For its part, a statement from Orange business services somehow confirmed that on the night of Saturday, July 4 to Sunday, July 5, the division of the telephone operator was indeed in the grip of a computer attack based on cryptovirus-type ransoming software. According to the division, the impact of the cyberattack was quite less. It only received information on the Neocles platform, the one that is in the closing court. But in a way, it's a platform that allows Orange's corporate customers to host virtual desktops. And this is outsourced with Orange business services.

Among the stolen data, it would appear that there would be e-mails as well as plane diagrams. According to the company, concerned by the cyberattack were immediately informed. An investigation has been launched to determine the causes, consequences, and vectors of attacks. Orange for sure that no other services were affected. It is during about twenty corporate customers have been affected.

According to the specialist website, Bleeping Computer, it was disseminated by the cyber criminals of the archives including information such as emails from aircraft diagrams from the aircraft manufacturer ATR, a subsidiary of Airbus.

Nephilim's cyber criminals are special criminals. They promised not to attack organizations such as hospitals, educational institutions, NGOs and even government structures. They agree to decrypt for free as their cyberattack highlights certain security vulnerabilities in the latter. "If we didn't encrypt one of these organizations by accident, we would provide the decryption for free and delete all downloaded data," nephilim's hackers said. At the beginning of the year, they had distinguished themselves through data encryption of terminals, as well as data sales and blackmail by specialized sites.

Now access an unlimited number of passwords: