The investigation into the cyberattack suffered by France’s TV5Monde television channel in April is now focusing on “a group of Russian hackers”, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.
The cyberattack was carried out by unknown persons claiming to represent the Islamic State group, who shut down transmissions and placed jihadist propaganda messages on the station’s website, and Facebook and Twitter accounts.
But confirming information first published by L’Express newspaper, the judicial source said :
the investigations are at this stage looking towards a group of Russian hackers designated by the name APT28
In a report to be published on Wednesday, L’Express said APT28, also known as “Pawn Storm”, had previously tried to hack the White House and NATO members, as well as targeting Russian dissidents and Ukrainian activists.
A source involved in the case told AFP the investigators were narrowing the search by probing the IP addresses of computers used in the attack.
The TV5Monde station, which broadcasts worldwide, did not resume full operations for 18 hours after the hack on April 8, which authorities at the time said was likely a “terrorist act“.
