French television network TV5Monde said Wednesday it had been hacked by individuals claiming to belong to the Islamic State group, who brought television broadcasts to a halt and and hijacked its websites and social networks.
The Paris-based company was able to partially resume television broadcasts by 1:00 am (2300 GMT) after a three-hour blackout, the network's director-general Yves Bigot told AFP, but added its systems had been "severely damaged" by an "unprecedented attack".
The hackers posted documents on TV5Monde's Facebook page purporting to be the identity cards and CVs of relatives of French soldiers involved in anti-IS operations, along with threats against the troops.
TV5Monde had regained control of its social networks by 2:00 am Thursday, the director-general said, but television broadcasts were likely to take hours, if not days, to return to normal. The attack would have required weeks of preparation, he added.
Its websites were still offline by 4:00 am, displaying an "under maintenance" message to visitors.
"That's why the French received the gifts of Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher in January," it said on the broadcaster's Facebook page, referring to the twin attacks by Islamist gunmen in Paris that left 17 people dead over three days and deeply shocked France.
More than 1,500 French nationals have left France to join the militants' ranks in Iraq and Syria, where they represent almost half the number of European fighters present, according to a report released Wednesday by the French Senate.
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