France's TV5Monde Was Victim Of Vicious Cyberattack In 2015

French TV network TV5Monde was the target of a vicious cyberattack in April 2015 which nearly destroyed the network and led to cybersecurity spending of over $3.4 million every following year, reports BBC News. TV5Monde director general Yves Bigot describes it as "the worst thing that can happen to you in television."

Investigators say Russian hackers APT 28 were behind the incident, which occurred the day TV5Monde launched a new channel. The intention apparently was to destroy the network though the reason for this is still unclear.

Bigot says the criminals conducted a reconnaissance in January to understand TV5Monde’s signal broadcast system. An attack was then launched through seven points with the intention to destroy the encoder systems through which programs are transmitted.

"We were a couple of hours from having the whole station gone for good,” recalls Bigot.

Read details on BBC News.