French President Emmanuel Macron says he plans to invest 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the national cybersecurity effort following recent series of hacking attacks on French hospitals that impeded their Coronavirus (COVID-19) response.

Mr. Macron made the announcement on Thursday.

Two French hospitals were forced to transfer some of their COVID-19 patients to other facilities recently after they were targeted in ransomware attacks.

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the matter on Tuesday.

“Our research and economic strategy for cybersecurity will speed up because we need to go further and faster and to be at the forefront, in total, 11billion euros will be invested,’’ Mr. Macron said on Twitter.

The attacks on hospitals in Dax and Villefranche-sur-Saone demonstrated the importance of “taking cybersecurity very seriously,’’ the French president said, adding that promoting cybersecurity will now be among his government’s priorities, both for the public and private sectors.

In a thread of tweets, Mr. Macron outlined the planned cybersecurity-related structural and financial initiatives.

This included an investment of 500 million euros in building “a more efficient and more united ecosystem’’ of cybersecurity in France, specifically by advancing the research and development of home-grown technologies.

Additionally, Mr. Macron called for doubling the jobs at the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems by 2025 and enhancing the training of cybersecurity personnel. 

(Sputnik/NAN)