A crippling cyber-attack has paralysed France’s national postal service, La Poste, and its banking division just three days before Christmas, delaying parcels and blocking online financial services in a move that sends a chilling warning across the globe to Nairobi.

For Kenyans, this is not a distant headline; it is a critical alert. The incident exposes the profound vulnerability of essential services—from banking to logistics—at their busiest moments, highlighting the urgent need to bolster Kenya's own digital defences as our economy increasingly moves online.

The French postal giant confirmed on Monday it was hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. In simple terms, a DDoS attack is like creating a massive, fake traffic jam to block legitimate users, flooding a target's online systems with so much junk traffic that they grind to a halt. La Poste's websites and apps were rendered inaccessible, and while the company insisted customer data was safe, the operational damage was immediate.

Customers across France were unable to track last-minute Christmas parcels or access their accounts with La Banque Postale, the group's banking arm. While ATM and in-store card payments reportedly continued to function, online transactions requiring app authentication were severely hampered.

A Timely Warning for a Digital Kenya

The timing of the attack—peak holiday season—was deliberately malicious and serves as a case study for Kenya. Our own nation's digital infrastructure is facing an unprecedented surge in cyber threats. According to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), the National Computer Incident Response Team detected a staggering 4.5 billion cyber threat events between April and June 2025 alone, an 80.7% jump from the previous quarter.

The CA report specifically noted a massive 255% increase in DDoS attacks during that period, the same method used against La Poste, primarily targeting government and healthcare systems. This surge is part of a broader trend that saw cybercriminals attempt to attack Kenya's key government infrastructure 114 times between January and August 2024.

These are not abstract figures. They represent direct threats to services Kenyans rely on daily, including:

• Mobile money platforms and online banking systems.
• Government e-services like the e-Citizen portal.
• Logistics and e-commerce companies handling festive season deliveries.

The French incident follows a separate cyber-attack on its government just a week prior, indicating a pattern of targeting critical national infrastructure. Kenya is similarly in the crosshairs. With a growing digital economy, our reliance on these systems makes them attractive targets for malicious actors seeking to cause maximum disruption.

While the government launched a National Cybersecurity Strategy for 2022-2027 to address these emerging threats, the sheer volume of attacks shows the race between defence and offence is relentless. The attack on La Poste is a reminder that preparedness is not a one-time policy decision but a constant, evolving battle.

As Kenyans prepare for the holidays, the chaos in France is a clear signal: the security of our digital lives cannot be taken for granted. The integrity of every online transaction and the reliability of every digital service depends on robust defences that must be ready for an attack at any moment.