A computer attack has affected the services of the town hall of Albi (Tarn) since Monday April 22, 2024. This Wednesday April 24, since 9 a.m., only the switchboard and the civil status service are operational.
It was a cold shower that literally paralyzed the municipal services of the town of nearly 50,000 inhabitants of Albi (Tarn) this Monday, April 22, 2024 in the early morning.
In a press release on its Facebook page, Albi announced that it had suffered a cyberattack which initially shut down all of the city hall’s IT and telephone services. The municipality then declared that it could once again provide telephone reception and civil status information this Wednesday, April 24.
At least one week of investigation carried out by ANSSI to determine the causes and extent of the attack, before a return to normal
Always on deck when a community is the victim of a cyberattack, like Saint-Nazaire on April 10, 2024, the National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI) was dispatched to city hall to get your hands dirty. In order to determine the origin of the attack, ANSSI experts carry out a sort of reset of each IT service. For their part, city officials locked all potentially vulnerable applications in advance to avoid spreading the attack to other external services.
Two scenarios then arise. Either the malware has already been identified during other similar attacks, such as that in the small town of Floirac, in Gironde, on April 18, 2024, and in this case, ANSSI will quickly be able to restore the proper functioning of services. Either it is a new virus, and we will then have to find a new solution. “ There are masses of data, many software to check, it can take time », deplores a representative of the staff of the town hall of Albi to our colleagues from La Dépêche du Midi.
Emergency measures to ensure continuity of public service, but additional workload for agents
“ Everything has been encrypted. We work with paper and pen “, despairs a municipal agent. Indeed, the deactivation of all services in order to allow IT services and ANSSI to determine the causes of the attack led to a return to the good old methods of another century.
But Stéphanie Guiraud-Chaumeil, the mayor (Horizons) of Albi, tries to reassure her fellow citizens. Of the ” emergency measures » were put in place during a crisis meeting in order to ensure the continuity of public service. This is how the town hall telephone switchboard as well as the civil status service were able to be operational again from Tuesday April 23 at 9 a.m. Citizens who wish or need access to various municipal services will have to go directly to city hall.
Another significant aspect of this cyberattack, apart from the technical disruptions and the slowdown in services that it causes, is financial. Indeed, accounting and payroll services are computerized and paralyzed. Payments to suppliers or payment to agents may therefore be disrupted. But here again, the city is reassuring. The agents will receive the same remuneration as the previous month, and possible regularization is to be expected. later », According to a staff representative. However, the additional workload placed on service agents is likely to generate additional tensions, as unions fear.
The CNIL was contacted, as required by law, and the Albigensian community filed a complaint with the competent authorities.
Sources: La Dépêche du Midi, Albi town hall
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