Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Government

France has identified Russia as the primary threat to national security in the coming years. The French government recommends adopting measures to strengthen its cybersecurity defenses in anticipation of increased hacks from Moscow-aligned attackers.

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By 2030, France and Europe will face the risk of "open warfare" with Russia because of ongoing geopolitical tensions over Europe’s continued assistance to Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022, the French government said in its National Strategic Review published on Monday.

"The trends observed over the past several years have accelerated dramatically," French President Emmanuel Macron said. "The first is the ongoing Russian threat at Europe's borders - a lasting threat that is being organized and prepared, and which we must be able to face in the future."

Russia is mainly focused on leading hybrid threats, combining interference in the information sphere, cyberattacks, sabotage, espionage and arbitrary detention of nationals, the report said.

While the number of reported cyberattacks has grown from 2,800 in 2020 to 4,300 incidents in 2024, an annual 15% increase, the French National Agency for Information Systems Security, or ANSSI, said. Those incidents include suspected Russian attacks against French hospitals and attempts to disrupt the Paris Summer Olympics.

Moscow's increased attacks against French schools and hospitals and disruption of the Paris Olympics, align with the broader strategy of destabilizing France, which has been an outspoken supporter of Ukraine. France has provided assistance worth 7.5 billion euros to Ukraine, which includes fighter jet missiles, armored vehicles and ammunition.

"Beyond these headline-grabbing threats, cyber-espionage campaigns continue to probe government and critical infrastructure networks; hacktivist operations exploit social tensions; and coordinated disinformation and misinformation efforts aim to undermine public confidence," said François Deruty, chief intelligence officer at French security firm Sekoia.

"Taken together, these trends underline that French organizations today face a truly multi-vector threat landscape," Deruty told Information Security Media Group.

The French government's assessment aligns with the broader European outlook on threats from Russia. An unidentified U.K. government official recently disclosed that Russia has stepped up its hybrid attacks against the country since January.

The French government indicated that both Russia and China pose a "systematic cyberthreat" to the country. This month, ANSSI disclosed that Chinese hackers targeted multiple government, defense and media organizations as part of a campaign dubbed Houken. The French government previously partnered with Sekoia to investigate botnets used for suspected espionage purposes by Chinese hackers (see: French Government Investigates Suspected Chinese Espionage).

In anticipation of rising cyberthreats, the strategic review further laid down plans to improve the French government's cyber resilience. These include investing in cybersecurity talent, strengthening its computer incident response team, upgrading its technical and legal capabilities to combat cybercrime, and detecting and mitigating vulnerabilities in software applications.

Vincent Strubel, the director general of ANSSI, said the strategy "sets us a course of redoubled efforts" to tackle systemic and targeted security threats.

"These various areas of effort will be detailed in the coming months by a new national cybersecurity strategy, which has already mobilized a large number of contributors and is fully in line with the course set by the strategic review," Strubel said.