Boating companies targeted by cyber attacks
Cyber attacks have been in the news for several months. If the hacking of hospital computer systems is making the headlines, the phenomenon also affects the nautical sector. The first major victim was the specialist from La Rochelle on the catamaran Fountaine-Pajot in June 2020. Since 19 February, it is the leader in the sector, the Bénéteau Group, that has been impacted. It has fallen victim to ransomware that is blocking some of the servers of the world's largest manufacturer of pleasure boats. In this type of attack, hackers demand ransom to unblock computer systems. While waiting for more precise announcements from the Bénéteau Group's management on Thursday 25 February, the situation remains problematic, with production resuming at a slower pace since 23 February at the French boat building sites.
If these two heavyweights of French nautical industry are the visible part of the iceberg, hacking affects the whole sector. " We have already had debates on this topic in discussions within the trade commissions during which professionals told us that their sites had been hacked "reports Fabien Métayer, General Delegate of the Fédération des Industries Nautiques (FIN).
A national challenge in the face of the development of telework
However, at this stage, the trade union has not developed any targeted action. " Since the beginning of the crisis, with the development of videoconferencing and the use of these applications such as Teams or Zoom, we have been relaying the preventive security protocols transmitted to us by the government and state agencies. It is a subject that we are nevertheless watching closely, especially with our Virtual Nautic trade show approaching. That's why we've relied on a large company whose servers are the same as Amazon "says the head of FIN. At the national level, the President of the Republic has announced a package of one billion euros to combat cybercrime.
