An investigation was opened Thursday by the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office after a computer attack that targeted a subsidiary of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), we learned this Friday from the parquet,
confirming point information.
The investigation was opened for “fraudulent access to an automated data processing system, entry and modification of data contained in a system, obstruction of the operation (of the) system, organized gang extortion and criminal association”, specified the parquet. According to the website of Point, the subsidiary of
Inserm,Inserm-Transfert, detected a computer attack on June 18 and management suspects “a theft of digital data with a view to resale on the dark Web”.
Preferred targets
Computer attacks, including ransomware (encryption of victim data by the perpetrator, who demands a ransom to make them available again), have exploded in France in recent years. Since the health crisis, health establishments have become prime targets.
The specialized section of the Paris prosecutor’s office announced, during a roundtable in April in the Senate, that it had registered 397 referrals for ransomware cases in 2020 and predicted a doubling of this number in 2021. According to the consulting firm Wavestone, which has teams of cyber firefighters working in companies hit by cyber attacks, around 20% of attacked companies pay a ransom in an attempt to recover their data.