Suspected Cyberattack Knocks France’s National Postal Service Offline

The disruption came during the postal service’s busiest season.

The logo of French postal service La Poste and banking service La Banque Postale in central Paris on July 30, 2025. Martin Lelievre/AFP via Getty Images

France’s largest postal operator, La Poste, and its banking subsidiary have been hit by a suspected cyberattack, disrupting mail services and online payments during the peak Christmas holiday period.

La Poste said on the morning of Dec. 22 that a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) incident had rendered its online services inaccessible. DDoS attacks overwhelm websites or servers with internet traffic, exhausting system resources and preventing legitimate users from accessing services.

Although there was no evidence that customer data had been compromised, the company acknowledged that mail distribution, including parcel deliveries, had been slowed.

The disruption came during the postal service’s busiest season. Customers complained on social media that delays could prevent packages from arriving in time for Christmas, and French media reported that some customers seeking to send last-minute parcels or collect items were turned away at post offices. La Poste processes and delivers millions of letters and packages in the days leading up to Christmas.

Users of the company’s banking arm, La Banque Postale, were also affected. The bank said customers were temporarily unable to use its mobile app to authorize payments or conduct other transactions. Online payments are still possible, but they require authentication via text message as a temporary measure.

“All our teams are fully mobilized to restore the situation as quickly as possible,” the bank said in a statement posted on social media.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suspected attack.

The disruption came about a week after a separate cyber incident targeting France’s interior ministry, which oversees the country’s police forces and matters related to national security. French authorities said a 22-year-old suspect had been detained in connection with that case.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Dec. 17 that a suspected hacker accessed several dozen sensitive files, including data related to police records and wanted persons, according to French public news broadcaster Franceinfo. He blamed “imprudence” within the ministry for the incident.

A hacker claiming responsibility later alleged that the cyberattack enabled access to data on 16.4 million French citizens, although Nuñez disputed that figure, saying only dozens of files were confirmed to have been stolen.

Separately, French prosecutors said last week that the country’s counterespionage agency is investigating a suspected cyberattack plot after a Mediterranean passenger ferry’s systems were infected with malware that could allow the ship to be remotely controlled. A Latvian crew member has been taken into custody on suspicion of acting on behalf of an unidentified foreign government, officials said.

Nuñez strongly hinted at the involvement of Russia, telling Franceinfo that “foreign interference very often comes from [the] same country.”