Ransomware Attack Strikes French Museums

Roughly forty museums operating under the aegis of France’sRéunion des Musées Nationaux(RMN) network were targeted by a ransomware attack this past weekend. Among the institutions hit were those serving as 2024 Olympic venues, including Paris’sGrand Palais, which is hosting fencing and taekwondo competitions, and, twelve miles west of the city, theChâteau de Versailles, the site of the games’ equestrian sports and modern pentathlon events.

A ransomware attack is infiltration of a system by malicious software that encrypts files and renders them inaccessible. Those perpetrating the attacks usually demand payment in exchange for an encryption key and may threaten to sell or publicly release stolen information if funds are not forthcoming.FranceInfo Radioreports that the instigators of this attack, which was detected August 4, threatened to leak private financial data if an unspecified amount was not paid to them within forty-eight hours.

No Olympic events are reported to have been interrupted, and the Grand Palais in a statement said that it had detected no data extraction to date. The RMN’s online shop, boutiquesdemusees.fr, was hit, but none of the museums or bookstores under the RMN umbrella were affected. Among the RMN institutions thought to have escaped the attack are the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée Picasso, all in Paris.

The identities of the hackers and the specifics of the attack are not yet known. The Associated Press reports that the Brigade for Combating Cybercrime is investigating the situation at the behest of the Paris prosecutor’s office; France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, is helping to restore the network.

The assault comes a little more than two months after blue-chip auction house Christie’s was targeted by RansomHub, a hacker group, just ahead of its marquee spring sales. That effort took the company’s website offline for ten days, during which time it successfully went ahead with its planned auctions.