Cyberattack shut down IT services across France's Pays Fouesnantais

The commune of Fouesnant in Brittany and its intercommunal authority, the Communaute de communes du Pays Fouesnantais, were hit by a cyberattack over the New Year weekend that knocked out essentially all of their IT systems.

Officials said the intrusion was detected at the end of December 2023 and described it as large in scale. Every computer-based municipal service was rendered inoperable, with one exception: the passport and national identity card counter, which runs on a separate network administered by the French state and continued to function.

The outage extended beyond the town hall to services run by the intercommunal authority, including the Balneides aquatic and leisure centre and the intercommunal social action centre, which supports vulnerable residents. Those facilities stayed open but operated at reduced capacity.

Mayor Roger Le Goff said the authorities had cut connections to isolate the problem and take stock of the damage. Residents were asked to postpone non-urgent enquiries, while telephone and in-person reception at the town hall continued during normal hours. French technology press reported the incident as a ransomware attack. As of early January 2024 no group had publicly claimed responsibility and the authority had not said when systems would be fully restored. The attack came during a run of incidents affecting French organizations over the same period.