New judicial crackdown after hacking of national education digital workspaces, these computer intrusions followed by false bomb threats which are ruining the life of educational establishments. The Paris public prosecutor’s office has just announced the indictment, Saturday September 16, of two teenagers. Aged around 15 years old and living in the Bordeaux area, they were placed under judicial supervision.
The courts suspect them of having hacked digital student workspaces, this virtual binder centralizing information on schooling which can also act as messaging. After taking control of the account, the hackers would issue bomb threats or false threats of attack. A total of 27 false alarms were recorded around June. Which has now earned them criminal prosecution for threats of death or destruction, disclosure of false information and attacks on an automated data processing system in an organized group.
Sixty students
According to the investigation, entrusted to police officers from the Central Office for Combating Crime Linked to Information and Communication Technologies, the two teenagers allegedly hacked the accounts of around sixty students. The court did not specify how the defendants took control of its accounts. However, during a previous wave of false bomb threats, a factsheet from the public interest group Cybermalveillance was distributed to students and parents. This sheet warned users against infections by stealers, this software that steals identifier data.
During police investigations, several software of this type had in fact been found on student computers. Victims were asked to disable their antivirus before downloading the program. This malware, including Redline software, according to Le Parisien, was presented as false video game extensions. These were supposed to allow you to watch videos of gaming tips.
Already indictments
It is currently unknown whether the two teenagers indicted in September have any links with the three other boys, aged 14 to 17, who were indicted in February 2023 in a similar case. Fifteen schools had to be evacuated after threatening messages were broadcast from hacked digital workspaces.
The investigators had found their traces thanks to a link to the social network Discord, called “Bombe”, inserted in one of the threatening messages, explained Le Parisien. The police then found the administrators of the Discord server, who had become the number one suspects in the investigation. One of the teenagers, arrested, confessed to a lack of adrenaline and boredom to explain his malicious actions.