The French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) recently confirmed that the source of the massive cyber hacking attack on six days of French school online courses and the French National Distance Learning Center came from Russia and China, although it has not been confirmed that the hackers themselves were Chinese or Russian. In response, China has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the French investigation.
The outbreak of the third wave of Wuhan pneumonia in France has led to a third nationwide quarantine and the closure of schools in favor of online classes, but unexpectedly, a massive cyber hacking attack occurred on the first day of online classes. The preliminary findings of the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) showed that the source of the foreign cyber attacks came from Russia and China, which was indeed true.
The official online course, which started in the morning of April 6, had network failure problems in several areas, with only 500,000 students connected to different teaching platforms out of 12.7 million students. Even the “Ma classe à la maison” (my home classroom) deployed by the French National Center for Distance Learning (CNED) did not work properly.
All the digital tools developed for distance education have collapsed and the educational network platform has fallen victim to a so-called “denial of service” attack, with Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer immediately stating that “the online education platform has been subjected to a massive attack from abroad”. The hackers have attacked on a large scale to prevent the network from operating.”
The National Distance Learning Center’s “My Home Classroom” tool recorded “more than 20 cyber attacks” in the morning, slowing down the site and affecting access to “My Home Classroom. “access to My Home Classroom, and a “massive attack” at 2:30 p.m.
Michel Reverchon-Billot, director of the National Center for Distance Learning (CNED), stressed that this was a deliberate and malicious act that continued for several days. The intensity of the attack has been increasing, reaching levels between one hundred and one thousand times higher than normal per second, and said, “We have filed a lawsuit against the cyberattack and the Office of Central Intelligence and Communications Technology to Combat Crime (OCLTIC) is conducting an investigation to confirm the nature of the analysis of the attack. My outrage is that the cyberattacks have prevented students from attending classes and teachers from teaching.”
All technical elements related to these cyber attacks were sent to the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI), whose experts analyzed the data.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the opening of an investigation and entrusted it to the Central Office of Intelligence and Communication Technologies to Combat Crime (OCLTIC) to investigate the “fraudulent use of automated processing systems” and the “obstruction of the operation” of such systems.
The National Information Systems Security Agency (ANISS) confirmed Boulanger’s hypothesis after several days of investigation showed that the massive cyberattack came from Russia and China, but did not yet confirm that the hackers themselves were Chinese or Russian.
For the French official distance learning website almost paralyzed, it was confirmed that it was attacked by hackers from Russia and China. In response, China expressed its willingness to cooperate with the French investigation. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on 13 June that if the French authorities need to investigate, China is willing to cooperate with the French investigation based on the principle of equality and reciprocity.
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