Paris, France – Online services of the French postal service, La Poste, experienced significant disruptions on Monday following a cyberattack. The incident impacted various online platforms, hindering package delivery and postal services across the country.
Numerous French citizens reported difficulties accessing postal services as websites became temporarily unavailable. Local media outlets highlighted the widespread disruption, with services down for several hours.
La Poste acknowledged the issue via its official X (formerly Twitter) account, initially attributing the disruption to a technical fault. The company stated that the issue had affected access to online banking services and its mobile application since early morning. It also mentioned that its teams were working diligently to restore services as quickly as possible.
Later, La Poste clarified that the disruption was caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. This type of attack floods servers with an overwhelming number of requests, leading to system overload and service interruption. While the attack impacted package and mail delivery, La Poste assured the public that customer data remained secure and was not compromised.
The cyberattack also affected the Banque Postale, the postal bank, preventing users from accessing their online accounts. However, online payments remained accessible, subject to SMS-based identity verification. The bank communicated via social media that its teams were working to resolve the situation swiftly. Customers of the Caisse d’Epargne (Savings Bank) also experienced login difficulties.
The timing of the attack is particularly sensitive, occurring at the start of the Christmas holiday week, a period of high parcel delivery volume for La Poste. This incident follows a recent surge in cyberattacks targeting French companies and government ministries, including the Ministries of Sports and Interior, highlighting the increasing threat of cybercrime against national institutions.
