Cyber Incident Victim: Nantes Métropole
Date:
Sep 2024
Location:
France
Summary
A cyberattack targeting Nantes Métropole caused prolonged inaccessibility of its website, with services disrupted throughout the day before being restored in the evening. The incident involved traffic saturation tactics but resulted in no data theft, according to the organization. Multiple other French websites were similarly affected during this period, echoing prior regional incidents impacting local economic agencies and municipal services in recent months.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On September 2, 2024, Nantes Métropole's website became inaccessible starting in the early morning hours due to a cyberattack. The outage persisted throughout the day, with the site remaining unavailable as of 7:30 PM local time. Technical teams worked extensively to restore services, characterizing their efforts as working "à pied d’œuvre" (round-the-clock). The attack methodology involved traffic saturation, overwhelming the site's capacity to handle requests. Nantes Métropole confirmed no data theft occurred during the incident. Service restoration was achieved by approximately 9:30 PM, nearly a full day after the initial disruption. The Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information (ANSSI) noted multiple French websites experienced similar attacks concurrently, indicating broader targeting beyond Nantes Métropole.
This incident followed recent cybersecurity events affecting the Loire-Atlantique region. Weeks prior, the regional economic development agency for Pays de la Loire had suffered a cyberattack. Saint-Nazaire municipality experienced significant disruption from a separate April 2024 cyber incident. Nantes Métropole's outage represented the latest in this pattern of attacks against public sector digital infrastructure in northwestern France. The rapid restoration of service suggested implementation of predefined incident response protocols, though specific containment measures weren't detailed publicly. Operational impacts were confined to website accessibility, with no reported compromise of backend systems or citizen data repositories according to municipal authorities.