French IT monitoring firm Centreon says no customers affected by hacking campaign, IT News, ET CIO

PARIS: French IT monitoring company Centreon said on Tuesday that none of its customers were affected by a hacking campaign described by the country’s cybersecurity agency in a recent report.

Hackers spent up to three years breaking into organizations by targeting Centreon’s monitoring software, French watchdog ANSSI said in the report that was disclosed on Monday.

“It is confirmed by ANSSI that no Centreon customers were impacted,” the French company said, adding in a statement that 15 “entities” were targeted during the hacking campaign through an obsolete open source version of the software.

Centreon did not provide the names of the 15 targeted organisations.

The company’s clients include some of the biggest French companies, such as utility EDF, telecoms firm Orange and Europe’s biggest bank BNP Paribas. The French Ministry of Justice is also a customer.

In its report, ANSSI stopped short of identifying the hackers but said they had a similar modus operandi as the Russian cyber-espionage group often nicknamed “Sandworm.”

The activity against Centreon, a Paris-based company which specializes in information technology monitoring, further highlights how attractive such firms are to digital spies.

ANSSI did not immediately reply to request seeking comment.