In first, France accuses Russian intelligence of repeated cyber attacks

PARIS (Reuters) - France on Tuesday directly accused Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency of a string of cyber attacks, including on ministries, defence firms and think tanks, which the foreign ministry said aimed to destabilise the country.

"Since 2021, this attack modus operandi (MOA) has been used to target or compromise a dozen French entities," the ministry said in a statement.

The accusations, labelled at GRU unit APT28, which officials said was located at Rostov-on-Don, are not the first by Western powers, but it is the first time Paris - referring to its own intelligence gathering - has laid the blame at the Russian state.

 (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)