Post date: Mar 07, 2011 4:59:31 PM
France's finance ministry was subject to a cyberattack in December targeting information related to its presidency of the Group of 20 nations, officials say, computer experts warn private and public bodies need greater security.
PARIS, FRANCE. REUTERS - France's finance ministry was subject to a cyberattack in December targeting information related to its presidency of the Group of 20 nations, officials said on Monday (March 7).
Budget Minister Francois Baroin said the infiltration of some 150 computers did not seek access to any personal records or tax information contained in them.The minister said officials had been shocked by the scale of the attack. "It is probably the first time it has been so spectacular," he said.
He added that there were some clues to the identity of the hackers, but he did not provide further details.
The website of Paris Match magazine (www.parismatch.com) quoted an unnamed senior ministry source as saying some of the information had been redirected towards Chinese websites but added that the source said this was not necessarily significant.
France began its G20 presidency in November with ambitious plans to tackle high commodities prices, reform the global monetary system and complete the G20's framework for tackling the global economic imbalances caused by some countries' large trade surpluses or government deficits.
It hosted a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in the finance ministry last month, which agreed on a list of indicators to measure imbalances in the global economy, including trade balances and government deficits despite strong resistance from China.
Beijing managed to exclude real interest rates and levels of international reserves and G20 nations must now establish guidelines by April for using the list.
Georges Liberman, the managing director of Xiring, an IT security company that has recently equipped French gendarmerie forces, said the likelihood was for more sophisticated attacks against public and private bodies.
"The trend is strongly towards more an more attacks. Of course. So all the equipment, the data processing equipment should be protected in the future. Most of them are already protected and we are going towards more and more security," he told Reuters Television.
Many companies and public bodies protected their systems with equipment that prevents access, such as firewalls and and antivirus software. But there was now a need for potential targets to police how machines were used and what kind of information they are seeking on the inside of a network, he said.
"One point that has to be enhanced as well as security is concerned, is the authentication of the user of the PCs and the authentication of who is entering the system and the management of the rights: who has the rights to access and search for information. And for example, the traditional ID and password is completely overpassed," added Liberman.