French police probe ransomware attack on Grand Palais Olympic venue

PARIS (Reuters) -French cyber crime police are investigating a ransomware attack against the Grand Palais exhibition hall in Paris where Olympic events including fencing and Taekwondo are being held, Paris prosecutors said on Tuesday.

They said cyber criminals had targeted the institution's central computer system, but the incident had not caused any disruption to Olympic events taking place in the iconic glass-roofed exhibition hall in the centre of the French capital.

The computer system at the venue also handles data for 40 mainly small museums with which it is affiliated, the prosecutors said in an email.

Franceinfo radio said the attackers had demanded payment of a ransom within 48 hours, threatening to post online the financial data they had obtained if they did not receive the unspecified sum of money.

France's museums organisation "Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais" said in a statement it had asked national cyber security agency ANSSI to investigate the situation and that no data extraction had been detected.

It added that there had been no impact on operations at the Grand Palais, where Olympic events went ahead without a hitch and that the 36 museums it managers remain open to the public as usual.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Geert De Clercq; Writing by Leigh Thomas;Editing by Helen Popper, Alexandra Hudson)

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