France Warns of Risk of War in Cyberspace

The head of the French government's cyber security agency is warning of the approaching risk of "permanent war" in cyberspace because of hacking attacks for espionage and fraud by states and criminals.

In an interview in his office Thursday with The Associated Press, Guillaume Poupard said that "in terms of effects and impact, we are clearly getting closer to a state of war."

He lamented a lack of commonly agreed rules to govern cyberspace and said nations "must work collectively, not just with two or three Western countries, but on a global scale."

Poupard also said his agency found no trace of a notorious Russian hacking group in its investigations of a hack and document leak that hit French President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign.