A few days after the wave of malicious messages broadcast via digital workspaces (ENT), Nicole Belloubet tries to calm things down. Questioned yesterday by France Inter, the Minister of National Education wanted to put out the media fire. “It is not the entire system that is penetrated,” she said, but only “certain accounts” of students or their parents.
National Education services are now working to identify these hacked accounts in order to reset their access. The public authorities believe that the reuse of stolen identifiers is the most likely hypothesis explaining these malicious acts. This kind of virtual binder centralizes information on schooling. But it can also act as a messaging service.
No system vulnerability
As the ministry specifies, the hacking of accounts is undoubtedly due to the capture, by malicious individuals, of access to digital workspaces revealed in data leaks. “At this stage, no intrusions have been noted by exploitation of flaws or vulnerabilities in the security of information systems,” adds the administration.
Initially, certain services, such as the Northern prefecture, had mentioned computer hacking of digital work spaces, without further details. A very broad communication which simply referred to compromises of user accounts, a security problem inherent to any platform.
To relieve boredom
At the last count, 125 middle and high schools were targeted between last Thursday and Monday by these threatening messages. Bomb or attack threats, sources of real nuisance. They forced the authorities to close establishments or suspend access to digital workspaces and block access to messaging.
Last September, two teenagers aged around 15 were indicted for a story of this type. They are suspected of having hacked around sixty student accounts before then sending false bomb threats. Three other boys aged 14 to 17 were also indicted in February 2023 in a similar story. One of the teenagers confessed to a lack of adrenaline and boredom to explain his malicious actions.