Cyber Incident Victim: Banque de France
Date:
May 2016
Location:
France
Summary
Anonymous conducted multiple high-volume DDoS attacks targeting several global financial institutions, including the Bank of France, as part of Operation Icarus. The institution's website was disrupted twice in a single day, forcing prolonged outages alongside central banks in the UAE, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Philippines. Attackers cited motivations of solidarity with social protests (#NuitDebout) and retaliation against arrests of hacktivists, leveraging 250 Gbps assaults to overwhelm infrastructure. The operation, supported by affiliated groups like Ghost Squad, temporarily disabled online services across multiple victims before restoration.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On May 15, 2016, the hacktivist group Anonymous conducted a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting multiple global financial institutions as part of Operation Icarus (OpIcarus). The Bank of France was among the primary targets, suffering two separate 250 Gbps DDoS attacks within a single day. These attacks forced the bank's website offline for extended periods, disrupting public access to its online services. Anonymous publicly claimed responsibility, stating the attack demonstrated solidarity with the #NuitDebout protest movement occurring globally at the time. The group specifically acknowledged assistance from "Sens power from Russia" in executing the Bank of France takedowns. Simultaneously, Anonymous targeted four other central banks – the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Philippines – with similar DDoS campaigns. The Philippine National Bank attack was separately motivated by retaliation against the arrest of a local hacker who breached the national election commission's database.
All targeted banking websites remained inaccessible for several hours during the attacks but were restored by the time of the article's publication on May 15. Anonymous framed these actions as part of a broader strategy to synchronize cyber operations with physical protests, declaring "the 99% will fight back." Operation Icarus had been reactivated in March 2016, with prior attacks against central banks in Jordan, South Korea, Monaco, Montenegro, Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Guernsey, Maldives, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The group maintained a dedicated Facebook event page to disseminate attack evidence and updates. No data breaches, financial theft, or infrastructure damage beyond temporary service disruption was reported. The incident represented one phase in a sustained campaign against financial institutions that Anonymous associated with systemic inequality.