Agence France-Presse says cyberattack targeted IT systems

The world’s oldest news agency said hackers launched an attack on its IT systems  Friday.

Agence France-Presse, known by most as AFP, said the attack affected “part of its delivery service to clients.” 

“It is not yet known who carried out this attack or why. AFP's technical teams are working on the incident with the support of the French National Agency for IT Systems Security (ANSSI),” they said. 

“The relevant authorities in France have been notified. We are currently working to analyse and deal with this incident. AFP's newsroom and all its services continue to provide news coverage across the world.”

The statement on Monday came as the company’s website suffered from intermittent outages and many pages were routed to a “Under Maintenance” landing page. 

The Paris-based company did not respond to requests for comment about whether they are dealing with a ransomware attack or if a ransom would be paid. 

No group has taken credit for the incident. Founded in 1835, AFP is one of the world’s largest and well-known news agencies, with offices in 150 countries and stories in dozens of languages. 

News outlets like the New York Times and others across the globe have been targeted in recent months by hackers hoping to exploit their aversion to downtime. A German radio station and Japanese media giant have both been attacked this month. In past years, News Corp, Nikkei, Impressa, Entercom, M6 and even the Weather Channel have dealt with cyber incidents.