Deliberate damage to the fiber optic network in eastern France left several major cities without internet access on Wednesday. The court has launched an investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
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The Zone ADSL website registered 9,156 internet outages in the past 24 hours, mainly at customers of network operator Free, and to a lesser extent also at operator SFR. The damage is said to have occurred around 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Three of Free’s four backbones were destroyed. These backbones connect internet traffic between different regions via high-speed fibers and serve as a node. This immediately cuts off entire regions from the damage. Network operator SFR also confirms multiple cuts in their fiber optic cables near Lyon and in Ile-de-France. The affected cables made the Paris-Lyon and Paris-Strasbourg connection.
Netalis, the alternative network operator for professionals, also experienced problems in the east of France, ‘either very serious delays or rare service interruptions of just over two hours’. Director Nicolas Guillaume plans to file a complaint: ‘Is it an act of cyber terrorism? Maybe. There was a big impact on the network because the attacks were well coordinated by people who have knowledge of how the network works.’
“The damage to the cables was confirmed in Ile-de-France, impact on the fixed and mobile network,” French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Cédric O tweeted.
Inquiry opened
The prosecution’s cyber department has opened investigations into “property encroachments that could harm the nation’s fundamental interests,” “impediment to an automated data processing system” and “criminal conspiracy.”
In March 2020, a telecom cable was deliberately cut near Paris, as a result of which tens of thousands of customers of telecom giant Orange were temporarily without internet access and data centers were disrupted. Orange and network operator Bouygues Telecom are not using the affected connections and are not experiencing any disruption.
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