BRIEF // The TousAntiCovid application has caused some Internet users to panic about a potential Ukrainian or Russian cyberattack. However, this is only a derisory sign of support.
The TousAntiCovid application now includes a Ukrainian flag © TousAntiCovid
This Friday, February 25, some mobile users noticed the appearance of a Ukrainian flag within the TousAntiCovid application, replacing the ordinary emoji of a person wearing a mask. On social networks, Internet users were worried about this change, and some politicians did not help the matter. Senator Valérie Boyer (Les Républicains) also played the alarmist by tweeting: “My vaccination pass has changed flag and you? A sign of support for Ukraine? A call for help ? Or a provocation by hackers highlighting the vulnerability of our information systems and our very-too-expensive consulting firms.” The same unnecessary alarmism on the part of his colleague Julien Aubert, who, in a tweet which he later deleted, for his part speculated that hackers, perhaps Russians, would have “infiltrated into an app that lists health data”.
It is not so. Contacted by some of our colleagues, the State Secretariat for Digital Technology simply let it be known that the Ukrainian flag had been added as a mark of support for the country currently affected by the war… Do not panic, therefore, since it is not a question of than a small communication operation.
The State Secretariat for Digital confirms to me that the addition of the flag ?? in TousAntiCovid is indeed a support operation from France to Ukraine pic.twitter.com/y5BUjHyaf6
—Benjamin Hue (@benjaminhue) February 25, 2022