A pro-Russian hacking group has claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that disrupted operations at France’s national postal service just days before Christmas. The incident temporarily knocked critical systems offline, halted package tracking, and disrupted online payments. French authorities have escalated the investigation, citing concerns that the attack fits a broader pattern of politically motivated cyber disruption tied to Russia’s ongoing hybrid warfare strategy.

European critical services have increasingly become targets of cyber operations linked to geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Postal, transportation, and financial services represent high-impact targets due to their reliance on centralized digital infrastructure and their importance to daily life. The timing of this incident—during the peak holiday shipping season—amplified its operational and public impact.

According to French prosecutors, the hacking group known as NoName057 claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack that disabled central computer systems at France’s national postal service, La Poste. The attack began on Monday and was still not fully resolved by Wednesday morning.

As a result, postal workers were unable to track package deliveries, and customers experienced disruptions to online payments through La Poste’s banking arm. Given that La Poste delivers billions of parcels annually and employs more than 200,000 workers, the outage represented a significant operational disruption at one of the busiest times of the year.

The attack was identified as a distributed denial-of-service operation, which overwhelms targeted systems with massive volumes of traffic, rendering services unavailable. While DDoS attacks typically do not involve data theft, they are effective at causing immediate service outages and reputational damage.

Such attacks are often coordinated using botnets—networks of compromised devices—that can rapidly flood targeted infrastructure. The scale and coordination required suggest planning rather than opportunistic activity.

Operationally, the outage delayed package deliveries and disrupted financial transactions, directly affecting consumers and businesses during a critical retail period. Strategically, the attack diverted technical and law-enforcement resources and increased public anxiety about the resilience of national services.

The incident also reinforced concerns that civilian infrastructure is increasingly being leveraged as a pressure point in geopolitical conflicts.

This attack underscores how cyber operations are being used not just for espionage or financial gain, but as tools of psychological and economic disruption. Targeting essential public services amplifies visibility, public frustration, and political pressure—key objectives in hybrid warfare campaigns.

French intelligence officials have linked this incident to a wider pattern of cyber and physical disruption attributed to Russian-aligned actors across Europe. Investigators note that these campaigns aim to test institutional resilience while draining defensive resources over time.