Overview
- The town of Joigny and the Communauté de communes du Jovinien recorded 268,795 malicious connection attempts over one week, which officials say came from 97,376 IP addresses and about 1,901 distinct attackers.
- Local authorities report that more than 100,000 attempts were traced to a single, known actor and that the bulk of source servers were routed through Russia with smaller shares from Taiwan and Romania.
- The commune credits detection tools developed by its IT director for identifying and blocking the traffic, and officials say no municipal equipment was damaged and no personal data were stolen.
- Officials warned that the attacks included a campaign targeting routers, a tactic that can disrupt local networks and services even when data are not exfiltrated.
- The incident highlights how smaller towns with limited IT staff face frequent, high-volume probing and underscores the need for continued monitoring and investment in local cyber defenses.