France accuses Russian military intelligence of cyberattacks

France accuses Russian military intelligence of cyberattacks targeting various sectors, including the 2024 Olympics and Macron's 2017 campaign.

France on Tuesday (April 29, 2025) accused Russian military intelligence of being behind a series of cyberattacks against the country over the last decade, including against an organisation involved in the 2024 Paris Olympics and Emmanuel Macron's first presidential campaign in 2017.

Since 2021, a branch of Russian military intelligence (GRU) dedicated to such attacks has also targeted a dozen French entities including "defence, financial and economic sectors", the Foreign Ministry said.

"France condemns in the strongest terms the use by Russia's military intelligence service (GRU) of the APT28 attack group, at the origin of several cyberattacks on French interests," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The GRU "has been carrying out cyberattacks against France for several years using a method known as APT28", Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a message on X, officially attributing these cyberattacks to the GRU for the first time.

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been linked to dozens of global cyberattacks, including the 2016 U.S. election, where it was accused of aiding Donald Trump by leaking Democratic Party emails and those of the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

The group targets personal email accounts to retrieve data and messages, or gain access to other machines on a system.

In 2017, hackers hit Macron's first presidential run, leaking thousands of documents barely 24 hours before the vote.