Image: CNED.
Almost a year later, we are starting to know a little more about the computer attacks that targeted the CNED in April 2021. A first suspect, presented for immediate appearance this Friday, March 25, 2022, should finally be tried on April 22. . Aged 21, Yannox – his pseudonym on the web – is being prosecuted for one of the denial of service attacks. He is suspected of having launched it from his parents’ home in Clamart, in the Paris suburbs.
While France had just entered its third confinement, the first days of the distance education service, “My class at home”, had been laborious. Denial of service attacks that came, said Jean-Michel Blanquer, from Russia. The assertion had made the Minister of National Education the laughing stock of Internet users, this response being seen as a way of discarding the computer shortcomings of his ministry.
At the time, Yannox had not been very discreet about his participation in the raids. This frail young man with long curly hair, handicapped by serious health problems, boasted about it on social networks. This had facilitated the work of the investigators of the OCLCTIC (Central Office for the fight against crime linked to information and communication technologies), the judicial investigation service responsible for the investigations.
Already condemned for rotting Rainbow Six
This Friday, March 25, the criminal court, like the defendant, requested the dismissal of the case. With his face turned to the ground, Yannox spoke briefly, in a low voice, to indicate that he wanted to start training as a web developer. Then the magistrates indicated that they wanted a new psychiatric and psychological expertise of the defendant. We will therefore have to wait a few more weeks to find out more about his exact responsibilities.
The new procedure targeting Yannox follows two recent convictions, each time for facts related to his behavior on the web. In January 2022, he was thus fined 600 euros for denial of service attacks targeting his favorite game, Rainbow Six. During this trial, Ubisoft, the publisher of Rainbow Six, had raised its questions about its involvement in the swatting affair, these bogus calls intended to provoke an intervention by the police at a third party, which had targeted in November 2020 his Montreal studio.
Finally, a few months earlier, in September 2021, the young man had also been fined 1,000 euros for homophobic, anti-Semitic messages and death threats. These hate messages, sent by the social network Twitter, targeted the director of the weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Limited involvement
Yannox’s involvement in the case of the denial of service attacks targeting the CNED seems however limited. The few elements unveiled in the file sketch the portrait of an immature copier who would have liked to invite himself into the raids. Thus, he is only prosecuted for a single computer attack, dated April 6. However, “the attacks began on April 4, and the site was already very weakened” two days later, thus noted at the hearing his lawyer, Armando Frignati.
In total, according to the count of the director of the CNED, around thirty computer attacks targeted distance education services. Cyberattacks which, apart from that of Yannox, are today the subject of separate investigations. We do not know the progress of this procedure, which the defense unsuccessfully requested to join.