Charlie Hebdo: French newspapers hit by cyberattacks after Paris shootings, with sites including Le Parisien and L'Express taken offline

‘Unprecedented’ cyberattacks have seen French sites hacked to display Islamist messages

There has been unprecedented demand for the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo (AFP/Getty Images)

Many of France’s biggest newspapers have been taken offline following the “unprecedented” hacking of French websites in the wake of last week’s shootings in Paris.

Websites including those of Le Parisien, L’Express, 20 Minutes, France Inter, Mediapart and Marianee have all faced problems as users see error messages when trying to get on the sites.

While the source of the problems is unknown, the cyberattacks come in the wake of what officials have called an “unprecedented” amount of hacking since the shootings in Paris last week. French websites have been hit by 19,000 cyberattacks since the Paris shootings, officials said.

Those hacks have been wide-ranging — hitting French military and government sites, but also pizza and gardening shops.

Many of the sites were hacked to show a message reading “The Islamic State Stay Inchallah. Free Palestine. Death To France. Death To Charlie,” according to Sky News.

The cyberattacks are part of a kind of guerrilla cyberwarfare that is being staged in the wake of the shootings in the Charlie Hebdo offices. Anonymous vowed to hack Islamist websites shortly after the shootings, and supporters of the shooters have repeatedly struck back.