France Blames Russian GRU for Cyberattacks on State Entities

France has publicly accused Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, specifically its APT28 unit, of orchestrating a series of cyberattacks aimed at destabilizing French institutions since at least 2015. The French foreign ministry highlighted attacks on government ministries, defense firms, think tanks, and organizations connected to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as previous incidents such as the 2015 TV5Monde hack and the leaking of Emmanuel Macron's campaign emails in 2017. This marks the first time Paris has formally attributed these cyber operations directly to the Russian state using its own intelligence findings. French authorities described these actions as part of a broader, intensified hybrid threat from Russia and released a report detailing attacks between 2021 and the end of 2024. The public attribution aligns France with other Western nations that have previously sanctioned entities linked to APT28 for similar activities. French officials underscored the ongoing need to observe, block, and counter such adversarial cyber operations.