The platform "my class at home" derails, the fault of a cyber attack, and the enthusiastic

Alexandre Boero September 23, 2021 at 3:402 p.m.

Nearly 13 million French students started a distance learning Tuesday morning.But with several failing platforms, this new experience was very difficult.The government evokes a computer attack on one side, and the supposed flaws of a furious provider (OVH), on the other.Back on a crazy day.

The new distance education session, about a year after the first, started on the hats, to say the least!As of this Tuesday morning, many students and parents noted that certain services, such as "my class at home" or the various entries (digital work spaces), which themselves support different user services, were victims of serious concerns andslowdowns, making the joy of many students and attributed to a cyber attack by the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer.

The ENTs have not borne the pressure, because of OVH?

The two devices (which are only two devices among others, the Pronote software having also experienced its share of concerns, according to certain testimonies) were the object on Tuesday of slowness and technical difficulties, presentingconnections sometimes impossible for part of the 12.7 million students supposed to follow their distance education.

ENT services, sometimes outright inaccessible, were more disturbed in certain regions, as in the Grand-Est, Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France or Occitania.In a press release, the government tells us that the concerns encountered are linked to providers from these regions, who have not been able to anticipate the overload undergone - and yet supposed to be anticipated - by infrastructure.

Throughout the day, therefore, local authorities were forced to deal with these difficulties, to gradually resolve them.The ministry and the academic services (CSI) supported these efforts.Tonight, we are told that if slowness remain locally, "platforms (...) are restored".

The government seems to have committed a little dumpling, by implicating OVH as being a provider responsible for technological bugs.Except that the affected regions and the unavailable applications were ... simply not hosted at OVHCLOUD, like the castigates Michel Paulin, the p.-D.G.of the French cloud giant.

"My class at home", a cyber attack for the government

The CNED (National Distance Education Center) system, "my class at home", has known a little more disturbing setbacks, if we believe the government.The Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports has mainly noted the slowness and response slowness between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., but these have extended part of the day.A massive attack followed around 2:30 p.m. on the institutional site CNED.fr who, for those who were transitted through him (and not via direct URL), led to site cuts, caused by multiple attacks.

"These facts are the consequence of several DDOS type attacks (Editor's note: numerous connections intended to bring down a server) simultaneous on the servers," says the ministry, which specifies that 500,000 students and teachers were able to meetIn 150,000 virtual classes this morning, despite acts of maliciousness.

Jean-Michel Blanquer claims that this is a cyber attack from "abroad", without more precision.The computer attack falls badly, since CNED platforms are cut to accommodate millions of users from schools, colleges and high schools.They are normally supposed to have seen their protection be reinforced, from the follow -up of cyber attack suffered in April 2020, during the first confinement.And OVHCLOUD is not responsible either, since the platform "My class at home" is accommodated at Amazon Web Services (AWS), after being set up by Blackboard, a company also American.

The "My class at home" site is still the subject of slowdowns, despite an impact limited by the work of the various teams in place, which also transmitted all the information to the ANSSI, responsible for identifyingThe nature of these attacks."CNED teams and providers who host servers have worked all day to stabilize the load and make the sites work at best.Everything is done for normal operation tomorrow morning, ”says the CNED, which announces its intention to file a complaint.

What do we think about Clubic?

We have tried to ask our questions at the Ministry of National Education to obtain more details, but alas, they remained unanswered.This silence can be understood in the face of the urgency of the situation, but the vagueness remains in particular with regard to the inaccuracies of Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, who clearly seems little comfortable with the problems of computer security, yet supposed to be a pillarof the strategy of its portfolio, very exposed to cybercriminals.

It is also unknown whether the DDOS attack that struck distance teaching services today has been able to cause other damage than a simple disruption or cutting of machines, certain assaults by denial of service that can create ideal breaches forPlace malicious software or to exploit possible Zero-Day flaws.

In short, little essential information has so far been brought to our attention, which is not frankly reassuring about the continuity of the service in the coming days.Fortunately, the holidays arrive quickly!