The recent cyberattack that targeted French retail stores and disrupted cooling systems in about 700 stores has caused a major crisis for the employees of these stores, the companies responsible for them, and the French authorities, who have launched an immediate investigation into the incident.
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Despite the magnitude of the disaster caused by the latest breach, it is not the only one, as it is the latest in a series of cyber breaches that have targeted France and made it the most hacked country in Europe.
French authorities have not released a list of those accused or suspected of involvement in the hacking, as investigations are still ongoing, especially since the attack did not yield any clear financial or political benefit for those who carried it out, according to a report by the American news network NBC.
One of the strangest hacking cases
Ciaran Martin, the founding CEO of the UK government's National Cyber Security Centre, described the attack to NBC as one of the most bizarre hacks in recent years.
He notes that typical hacks involve targeting retail stores' computers and then encrypting their contents, demanding a ransom, but this did not happen in the hack of the French stores.
The uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding this attack continues to this day, as Vincent Strobel, the Director General of the French Cybersecurity Agency, explained in a statement that officials do not have a detailed understanding of what happened.
Ken Munro, a partner at the British cybersecurity firm PenTest Partners, points out that this attack was so easy that any average hacker could have carried it out, adding: "That includes grumpy teenagers."
Disgruntled teenagers or a political attack?
Cybersecurity expert Jerome Billois, a partner at Wavestone, a cybersecurity and technology company, told The Guardian that the attack bore the hallmarks of politically motivated attacks aimed at destabilizing countries.
Nevertheless, Belloa does not rule out that the attack was carried out by a group of young activists who wanted to prove their capabilities by demonstrating what they could do.
It should be noted that the French street is currently facing a wave of demonstrations led by teenagers, which have caused damage to a number of French shops and fashion houses.
How exactly did the attack happen?
The Guardian report explained that the attack mechanism relied on hackers exploiting a vulnerability in the controllers manufactured by the Danish company Danfoss, which are responsible for controlling the various cooling units.
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