France’s TV5MONDE Comes Under Attack from Pro-Islamic State Hackers

NEW YORK: The TV channels, websites and Facebook page of the French broadcaster TV5MONDE were taken over by Pro-Islamic State hackers, according to the network. 

TV5MONDE was hacked late Wednesday and was not able to broadcast from any of its channels for several hours. Its social media sites and websites were "displaying claims of responsibility by Islamic State," TV5MONDE's director-general, Yves Bigot, told Agence France-Presse. The company email went down as well.

The hackers posted a message to TV5MONDE's Facebook page that read: "The Cyber Caliphate continues its cyberjihad against the enemies of Islamic State." They also posted documents meant to be ID cards of relatives of French soldiers involved in anti-Islamic State operations, as well as threats against the troops.

The attack began around 10 p.m., when 11 of its networks went dark. The French-language global broadcaster regained control of its Facebook page by 12 a.m. on Thursday. As of the time of this post, one feed to its global channels has been restored, but its website is still offline.

“Those terrorists, as they are certainly terrorists—we are checking on the claim—are using the most advanced technologies,” said Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister, after visiting the TV5MONDE offices on Thursday. “Everything is being done to find the authors, punish them, re-establish broadcasting and then prevent such cyberterrorism attacks from threatening freedom of speech in the future.”