The attack began with TV5 Monde phishing – BBC

The intrusion began in January, because of a corrupted email sent to all employees of the TV channel.

The jihadi cyber attack suffered by TV5MONDE was triggered by the end of January by sending emails to journalists from the French international chain. On the night of April 8 to 9, hackers claiming the organization of the Islamic state took control of the Facebook and Twitter accounts and the site of TV5MONDE, by posting on jihadist propaganda messages and blocked his all computer system. The chain had to stop broadcasting several hours.

The attack had begun much earlier, however, with an email sent late January to all journalists in the chain, according to the conventional technique of “phishing” (“phishing” in French). The latter consists of sending a corrupted email to an employee of the company involved. The recipient is prompted to download an attachment or click on a link, causing the installation of malicious software. Three employees of TV5MONDE responded to email corrupted, allowing hackers to penetrate the chain system type software “Trojan Horse”. Three weeks before the attack in March, the second phase of the offensive was launched with the contamination of several computers TV5MONDE by a virus. Then on April 9, the actual offensive began with the attack on the servers. For several hours, the servers are attacked and social networks.

“This attack is both simple in its onset,” with phishing technique that allowed “to penetrate the worm in the fruit,” and “very sophisticated in its place with complicated software “said a source close to the matter. Which allowed its trigger is “as always, a human flaw in the beginning.” It is the state of the investigations failed to determine the geographical origin of the attack, or the number of hackers who helped organize it, according to another source close to the matter. According to the Secretariat-General for National Defence and Security (SGDSN) and the National Agency of information systems security systems, this attack “unprecedented” was prepared long and careful way.

(with AFP)