A rise in both online and physical attacks has threatened France’s defence industry, according to Général Philippe Susnjara, director of the French Government’s Defence Intelligence and Security agency (DRSD).
According to Susnjara, there has been an increase in “malicious acts”.
“It can be estimated that between 2023 and 2024, at the defence industrial base level, cyber attacks will have increased by 60 per cent and physical attacks by 50 per cent. This corresponds to several hundred incidents each year,” he said on April 14.
Speaking to French business magazine Usine Nouvelle, he described a wide range of hostile actions targeting defence sites, including unauthorised drone flights, fires, theft of computers and phones, cyber attacks, and site intrusions.
He also warned that the escalation of such incidents could jeopardise production capacities within the defence sector.
Susnjara pointed to what he said was the increasing involvement of extremist groups.
“Many of these actions appear to be the work of anti-militarist or anti-war groups, often with ties to the ultra-left,” he said.
While he did not rule out the possibility of foreign interference, he suggested Russia was a potential actor behind some of the incidents.
“The attribution to Russia has not yet been established. But I have no doubt that individuals have tried to act on behalf of this country.
“There have been proven cases in Germany and Poland, so there’s no reason why some people shouldn’t have tried in France,” he said.
According to Susnjara, subcontractors were particularly vulnerable. He argued that most attacks targeted subcontractors whose facilities tended to be far less secure than those of major defence firms.
“There are still companies that do not use antivirus software and automatic updates are not always enabled,” he pointed out.
“People have to be sorted according to who has access to which areas. You need access badges. Even in small start-up premises,” he added.
“The flaw, even in this day and age, is human behaviour. You don’t just put any USB stick on a network. You don’t leave sensitive documents lying around. You don’t talk about your life in the train.”
In 2024, France’s Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecorn had warned that France was the victim of cold-war style attacks on its defence sites.
In 2022 and 2023, “around 50” companies suffered “intrusions, burglaries and attempted [breaches of security]” in addition to cyber attacks, which were “25 per cent higher” than in 2021, he said.
