PARIS ― French intelligence services are investigating a suspected foreign operation after high-tech spyware was seized aboard a ferry in Sète, southern France.

“Individuals have tried to penetrate a ship’s IT system … investigators suspect a foreign-born operation,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Wednesday on radio Franceinfo.

The ship was docked in the port of Sète, on the Mediterranean coast, when French authorities received intelligence from their Italian counterparts that the ferry’s IT system had been infected by a remote access tool, the Paris prosecutor’s office, which has launched a judicial investigation into the case, said. French intelligence agency DGSI has been tasked with the probe.

The news comes as several suspected hybrid warfare operations have been reported in the country in recent weeks, including drones buzzing over a highly sensitive submarine base and destabilization operations targeting high-profile monuments in Paris, with Russia seen as a likely sponsor.

Two suspects, both crew members, were arrested last Friday, one Bulgarian and one Latvian. The Bulgarian suspect was later released. The Latvian suspect remains in custody and charged with conspiring to penetrate a data processing system on behalf of a foreign power, the prosecutor’s office said. Investigations have taken place in Latvia with the collaboration of local authorities.

According to Le Parisien, who first reported the story, a sophisticated spying tool allowing infection and remote control was seized from the ship by DGSI agents, with Russia suspected to be behind the operation.

However, neither the prosecutor’s office nor Nuñez confirmed that Moscow was suspected of orchestrating the hack. Nuñez said this wasn’t the first time such gear was found by investigators.