A suspected cyberattack knocked Frances national postal service and itsbankingarm offline Monday, blocking and delaying package deliveries and online payments at the height of the busyChristmasseason.

The postal service, called La Poste, said in a statement that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, rendered its online services inaccessible. It said the incident had no impact on customer data, but disrupted package and mail delivery.

At aParispost office decked out in holiday garlands and usually bustling this time of year, employees turned away frustrated customers lining up to send or retrieve packages, including Christmas gifts.

Customers of the companys banking arm, La Banque Postale, were blocked from using the application to approve payments or conduct other banking services. The bank redirected approvals to text messages instead.

Our teams are mobilised to resolve the situation quickly, the bank said in messages posted on social networks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

It came a week after Frances government was targeted by a cyberattack that disrupted the Interior Ministry, in charge of national security.

Read moreFrance detains 22-year-old suspect over interior ministry cyberattack

In that incident, a suspected hacker extracted a few dozen sensitive files and obtained access to data relating to police records and wanted persons, Interior Minister Laurent Nuez said on broadcaster France-Info. He blamed imprudence at the ministry for the incident. Frenchmediareported that a 22-year-old was detained.

Also, last week, prosecutors said that Frances counterespionage agency is investigating a suspected cyberattack plot involving software that would have allowed remote users to control the computer systems of an international passenger ferry. A Latvian crew member is in custody facing charges of having acted for an unidentified foreign power, officials said.

France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging hybrid warfare against them, using sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are often hard to quickly trace back to Moscow.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Originally published on France24