UA preliminary investigation was opened on Wednesday April 27 after a wave of malicious acts of unprecedented scale targeting the national fiber optic network, said the Paris prosecutor’s office. The cyber section of this prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation on the counts of “deterioration of property likely to harm the fundamental interests of the Nation”, “obstructing an automated data processing system” and “criminal association”, concerning these incidents that on Wednesday led to slowdowns and cuts in Internet access in several major French cities, including Grenoble, Besançon, Reims and Strasbourg.
It is the Free operator which seems the most widely impacted. On Twitter, he reported “multiple malicious acts” that occurred on his fiber network overnight. According to Free, the resulting disruptions are now “limited”.
hello, a fiber break has caused a service interruption since this morning in the Cernay la Ville region (78) as well as part of 78 and 91.
A team is on site, we will keep you informed of the evolution of the situation. Thanks for your patience. pic.twitter.com/2XIRCXyR7j— Free 1337 (@Free_1337) February 21, 2022
“The attacks took place tonight at 4 a.m. Since this morning, the teams have been mobilized,” the operator told AFP, hoping that the network will be “restored during the day”. The operator SFR, also concerned, confirmed “several fiber cuts” around Lyon and in Île-de-France, the origin of which “is unknown”. “Teams are on deck” and “work is in progress,” the company continued.
On the other hand, their competitor Bouygues Telecom “does not use the links affected by these malfunctions and mobile and fixed services are provided normally,” the group told AFP. “Three of Free’s four thoroughfares, which form the backbone of their network, have been vandalized,” other sources said. On Twitter, several of the operator’s customers in Grenoble and Strasbourg complained of no longer having any Internet speed via their Freebox after a cut that occurred overnight.
In Strasbourg, the “cloud” service provider (dematerialized computing) Agora Calycé had also announced at 7:25 a.m. on Twitter that it was “currently suffering from a national multi-operator incident” which affects customers “connected to fiber”. “It’s a bit like if highways were cut and traffic had to be redirected to national ones,” commented Sami Slim, managing director of Telehouse, one of the hubs of Internet traffic in France. By building new “roads” to bypass the disruptions, “it works, there may be small cuts here and there, but the internet works,” he added.
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