France’s Altran Tech hit by cyberattack

(Reuters) — French engineering consultancy Altran Technologies on Monday said it was the target of a cyberattack last Thursday that hit operations in some European countries.

Altran said it had shut down its IT network and applications and a recovery plan was underway.

“We have mobilized leading global third-party technical experts and forensics, and the investigation we have conducted with them has not identified any stolen data nor instances of propagation of the incident to our clients,” it said.

Altran’s clients include French utility Engie, U.S. satellite operator Iridium, British online supermarket Ocado and Britain’s Network Rail.

Governments are increasingly warning about the risks private businesses face from cyberattacks, both those carried out by foreign governments and financially motivated criminals.

For example, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre announced on Friday it was investigating a large-scale Domain Name System, or DNS, hijacking campaign that hit government and commercial organizations worldwide.

On Tuesday, metals producer Nyrstar also said it had been hit by a cyberattack, leading it to shut down some of its IT systems to contain the issue.