The websites of several prominent French cities became inaccessible on Tuesday due to attacks by hackers.

Paris prosecutors have launched an investigation into the matter, as the hackers claimed their actions were a protest against France’s support for Ukraine.

At around 1600 GMT, the websites of Marseille and Tarbes, along with the Haute-Garonne department’s site, were reported down.

The hacker group known as NoName took responsibility for the attacks, announcing on their X account that they had targeted additional cities, including Nantes, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Pau, Nimes, Nice, Angers, Le Havre, and Montpellier, as well as the Les Landes department, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia.

Fortunately, these sites remained operational during the incident.

The Paris prosecutors’ office confirmed that a total of 23 websites were affected. Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, acknowledged on X that his city’s website was among those targeted.

Furthermore, Marseille’s town hall indicated that the attacks on their servers necessitated protective measures, rendering them temporarily inaccessible.

Despite the disruption, cities like Pau and Angers reported no noticeable incidents.

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The attacks employed a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) technique, which floods sites with excessive automated requests, making them inoperable without compromising data.

Cybersecurity expert Benoit Grunemwald from ESET noted that the attacks appear to be aimed at creating a perception of digital insecurity rather than stealing information.