PARIS — Hackers claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group simultaneously blacked out 11 channels of a French global TV network and took over its website and social media accounts on Thursday, in what appeared to be the most ambitious media attack so far by the extremist group.
PARIS — Hackers claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group simultaneously blacked out 11 channels of a French global TV network and took over its website and social media accounts on Thursday, in what appeared to be the most ambitious media attack so far by the extremist group.
Anti-terror prosecutors opened an investigation into the attack that began late Wednesday and blocked TV5 Monde from functioning part of the day Thursday. Operations were fully re-established Thursday evening.
The hackers briefly cut transmission of 11 channels belonging to TV5 Monde and took over its websites and social media accounts. The channel’s director, Yves Bigot, said the attack continued into Thursday. However, the station was able to broadcast its 6 p.m. live show, “64 Minutes.”
The message on the TV5 Monde website read in part “I am IS” with a banner by a group that called itself Cybercaliphate.
Hackers operating under the name Cybercaliphate have carried out a string of attention-seeking attacks against media outlets — including several in the U.S. — since late last year. Even though the hackers express support for the Islamic State group and routinely use its imagery in their attacks, it is difficult to know for sure whether they are genuine members, simple supporters or hackers with no link to IS. Experts who have followed the group’s online communications say its supporters have regularly expressed interest in launching cyber-attacks at Western targets.
TV5 Monde was founded by the French government in 1984 and calls itself the “worldwide French cultural channel.” It broadcasts news and other programs produced in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. Its Facebook page says its signal reaches more than 257 million homes in over 200 countries and territories.
France is still under the shock of the deadly January terrorist attacks in Paris against satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery store. Since then, officials say hackers have targeted some 19,000 French websites.
The editor of the French investigative website Breaking3zero, which tracked the January hacks, said the latest attack can be directly linked to two Islamic State-linked militants — one in Algeria who built the malicious software and another in Iraq who helped speed up the attack.
Within a half-hour, said William Reymond, the malware had burrowed in and exploited a weakness to enter the network’s computer system and take over its central transmission server, preventing the signal from being beamed to a satellite. He said TV5 Monde will have a hard time regaining full control.
The hackers also claimed to have leaked files that included resumes, passport scans and government letters, according to an analysis by the SITE Intelligence Group.
It isn’t the first time that hackers have caused on-air mischief.
British security expert and commentator Graham Cluley said the incident was reminiscent of the Zotob worm, which hit computers at CNN’s New York bureau in 2005, disrupting programming.
Cluley noted that CNN appears to have been collateral damage. Zotob’s authors were “just trying to hit as many computers as possible.”
Britain-based cybersecurity specialist Rob Pritchard cautioned that the hackers who hit the French network could have unsuccessfully attempted similar attacks against others before cracking open TV5 Monde’s system.
He said taking a global network off the air was a new step.