European intelligence agencies now say tracking suspected Russian interference occupies as much time and resources as counterterrorism operations, reflecting the growing scope of hybrid threats across the continent. The warning comes amid a major cyberattack that hit France’s national postal service during the peak of the Christmas rush.
La Poste Disrupted by Claimed Pro-Russian Hack
French prosecutors reported on Wednesday that pro-Russian hacking group Noname057(16) claimed responsibility for the cyberattack that took La Poste offline. Following the claim, the domestic intelligence agency DGSI assumed control of the investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The attack on Monday involved a distributed denial-of-service assault that had not been resolved by Wednesday morning, preventing postal workers from tracking deliveries and disrupting online payments at La Banque Postale, the postal service’s banking arm. The strike struck at the busiest period of the year for La Poste, which employs more than 200,000 people.
A History of Targeted Operations
Noname057(16) has a history of striking Ukrainian media outlets as well as government and corporate sites in Poland, Sweden, Germany and France, including the Ministry of Justice and multiple prefectures and municipal offices. Authorities targeted the group in July with Operation Eastwood, a coordinated effort spanning 12 countries. Police dismantled over 100 servers, made arrests in France and Spain, and issued seven arrest warrants, six of them for Russian nationals. Despite this crackdown, Noname057(16) resumed operations within days and has remained active.
Escalating Cyber Threats Across Government Infrastructure
The La Poste disruption came shortly after French officials disclosed a cyberattack on the Interior Ministry, which manages national security. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told Franceinfo that a suspected hacker extracted several dozen sensitive documents and accessed police records and information on wanted individuals. Prosecutors also revealed last week that the counterintelligence agency is probing a cyberattack plot involving software capable of remotely controlling computer systems on an international passenger ferry. Authorities said a Latvian crew member is detained on charges of acting for an unidentified foreign power.
Hybrid Warfare and Russian Involvement Suspected
While no official attribution has been made, Nunez strongly hinted at Russian involvement, stating, “foreign interference very often comes from same country.” France and other European allies of Ukraine argue that Russia has waged a broad campaign of hybrid warfare since its full-scale invasion in February 2022, using sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks and disinformation to undermine Western societies and weaken support for Kyiv. On the sabotage front alone, Western officials have linked dozens of incidents to Moscow, including arson attacks on warehouses, railway disruptions and acts of vandalism. Against this backdrop, European intelligence agencies now say that monitoring Russian interference has become as demanding and consequential as counterterrorism itself.
