France's national post office, La Poste, said its websites, apps and banking services were disrupted on Monday by a suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, delaying mail and parcel deliveries just days before Christmas.
La Poste said the incident temporarily made its online services inaccessible, though customer data had not been compromised. The disruption slowed postal operations at one of the busiest times of the year, with more than 2 million items normally handled in the run-up to Christmas.
String of recent cyber-attacks in France
La Banque Postale said access to online banking and its mobile app was affected, while card payments in shops and cash withdrawals from ATMs continued to function. Online payments remained possible but required text-message authentication. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The incident comes amid a string of recent cyber-attacks in France, including one targeting the interior ministry last week, as authorities warn of rising "hybrid" cyber threats against public institutions and private companies.
La Poste on X:
"A major network incident is currently disrupting all of our information systems. Our online services: La Banque Postale online and the mobile app, laposte.fr, Digiposte, Identité Numérique La Poste, and the La Poste app are temporarily inaccessible."
"In some post offices, the service may be temporarily degraded. It is however possible to carry out your banking and postal transactions at the counter. Our teams are mobilized to restore the situation as quickly as possible and ensure a return to normal."
"For banking customers, online payments remain possible with SMS authentication. Cash withdrawals at ATMs, card payments at POS terminals in stores, and transfers via WERO are still accessible."
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