France launches cyberdefence programme
France is to invest a million euros in cyberdefence to combat a mushrooming number of cyberattacks, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced on Friday. The country was the target of nearly 800 significant cyberattacks in 2013, he said.
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"I want speedy results," Le Drian declared at the launch of his Cyberdefence Pact 2014-2016 in the Brittany town of Cesson-Sévigné.
There were more than 780 "significant attacks" in 2013, he revealed, up from 420 in 2012, and they are becoming "more and more varied, complex and diffuse".
So cyberdefence has become one of the top priorities of the French military's 2014-2019 programme and a budget of about a billion euros will be allocated to it.
A cyberdefence "centre of excellence" will be set up in Brittany, exclusively French software will be developed and a cyberintelligence cell will be established.
France also wants to develop offensive tools in cyberspace.
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