France probes 'foreign interference' after malware found on ferry

Italian authorities had warned France that the operating system of the vessel could have been infected by a malware known as a Remote access Trojan (RAT) which allows a hacker to gain remote control of a system.

Two crew members, a Latvian and a Bulgarian, whose identities had been signalled to France by the Italian authorities, were detained last week. The Bulgarian was freed but the Latvian charged and placed under arrest in the investigation.

The office of the Paris prosecutor said late Tuesday it had opened an investigation into a suspected bid "by an organised group to attack an automated data-processing system, with the aim of serving the interests of a foreign power".

- Security warnings about Russia -

France and other European governments have warned that Russia is stepping up a campaign of interference more than three and a half years into its war against Ukraine.

"This is a very serious matter... individuals tried to hack into a ship's data-processing system," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told France Info radio early Wednesday. 

"Investigators are obviously looking into interference. Yes, foreign interference," he said.

Nunez refused to be drawn over whether the attack was aimed at diverting the ship from its route and did not name Russia.

But he said: "These days one country is very often behind foreign interference."

In a sign of the gravity of the case, the investigation is being led by France's domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).

After being cordoned off in port, the Fantastic was subjected to an emergency inspection by the DGSI, which led to the seizure of several items. 

The vessel was subsequently cleared to sail again after receiving approval from maritime authorities, after technical checks were completed and any danger to those on board ruled out.

Emergency searches were also conducted in Latvia with the support of Eurojust, the European Union's judicial cooperation arm, and the Latvian authorities.

The Latvian national's lawyer Thibault Bailly said he believed the "theory of Russian interference evoked in the press seems superfluous".

"The investigation will shed light on several aspects of this case that are still unclear. In particular, it will demonstrate that this case is not as worrying as it may have initially seemed," he added.

mca-sjw/ah/rlp