Hackers have hit 19,000 French websites since the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, according to a French cyber-defence official.
Speaking to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Arnaud Coustilliere said that most of the cyber-attacks had been mere denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and had hit everything from pizza chains to military groups.
"What’s new, what’s important, is that this is 19,000 sites — that’s never been seen before," he said. "This is the first time that a country has been faced with such a large wave."
Arbor Networks told AFP that within 24 hours France had been hit by more than 1,000 DoS attacks, which was a quarter of those that hit the US in the same period, despite the fact the US hosts 30 times more websites.
Such attacks are often poorly regarded among many hackers due to the technical simplicity of carrying them out, despite the fact they can disable websites for days at a time.
Coustilliere added that the attacks were a response to rallies that had been held in France in the wake of the attacks, including a series on Sunday that drew crowds of 3.7m in various cities across the country.
Hackers from around the world responded to the slaughter of Charlie Hebdo journalists last week with an array of threats, the Cyber Caliphate among those opposing the West whilst various factions of Anonymous took both sides of the argument.
