Media giant AFP hit by cyberattack impacting news delivery services

Global news agency AFP (Agence France-Presse) is warning that it suffered a cyberattack on Friday, which impacted IT systems and content delivery services for its partners.

The news organization says the attack does not impact news coverage worldwide but has impacted some client services.

AFP's IT staff is working with France's cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) to mitigate the attack and resolve its repercussions.

As for the type of the attack and the perpetrators, no details were provided.

"Agence France-Presse detected an attack on its IT systems on Friday, affecting part of its delivery service to clients. It is not yet known who carried out this attack or why," reads the statement.

"AFP's technical teams are working on the incident with the support of the French National Agency for IT Systems Security (ANSSI)."

AFP is an award-winning Paris-based news agency with a presence in 150 countries, employing over 2,400 people in 260 cities, and covering news in French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.

Although the news agency did not specify what specific client services were impacted by the cyberattack, they are known to provide real-time news feeds, subscription-based content services, custom news packages, and content archives, some of which may be currently unavailable.

In an email seen by BleepingComputer, the company warned other media company that the cyberattack may have also compromised FTP credentials used to receive AFP content.

"As a reminder, the passwords on your FTP servers that receive AFP content may have been compromised. Therefore, we recommend you change your passwords and check all your reception systems are secure," reads AFP's email to partners.

If you have any information regarding this incident or any other undisclosed attacks, you can contact us confidentially via Signal at 646-961-3731 or at [email protected].

BleepingComputer has contacted AFP and ANSSI to learn more about the cyberattack and its potential impact, but we have not yet received a response from either.

At the time of writing, no ransomware gangs or other threat actors have assumed responsibility for the attack at AFP.

France under fire

France has had its fair share of high-impact cyberattacks this year, some threatening the organizations during crucial times, and others impacting tens of millions of people.

In February, a data breach at French healthcare service providers Viamedis and Almerys exposed the details of 33 million people.

In March, France's unemployment agency, Pôle Emploi, informed the public that hackers had breached its systems and accessed the personal details of around 43 million registered citizens.

In April, Hospital Simone Veil in Cannes (CHC-SV), an 840-bed hospital, announced it was targeted by a cyberattack later claimed by Lockbit 3.0.

Finally, during the Olympic Games in August, threat actors successfully impacted the Grand Palais Réunion des musées nationaux (Rmn), a museum management institution and cultural site itself.