In front of the Caen nautical stadium (Calvados), Sophie and Julien arrive with their backpacks on their backs, ready to do some lengths at noon. But, these subscribers know, their checkout is now turned upside down. “We can no longer recharge our cards and payment is only made in cash since the cyberattack. “. A sign recalls that the town hall was the victim of a cyberattack on September 26, when hackers attacked the city’s servers. An offensive detected after an hour and a half. Early enough to isolate most of the servers.
A month later, the head of the city’s computer systems department, Hélène Drieu, takes stock: “Two servers out of three hundred have been compromised. That is to say that the attackers managed to enter it”. The “remarkable work of the IT teams”, as highlighted by the director of cabinet Bertrand Cousin, makes it possible to gradually put the systems back on track.
“We had to reassemble our applications, explains Hélène Drieu. Of course, there were priorities, such as financial services, tools to pay suppliers, services to the public or, of course, security. » About fifty major applications are already operational. The restarting of dozens of others will follow in the coming months. “We put an extra layer of security. It takes time, ”slips the manager.
In the meantime, the community operates “in an internal bubble”, cut off from the Internet until it fully recovers from the cyberattack. Messaging, for example, works on this internal network. This period of security leads some services to take a step back in time: it is the return of counterfoil books instead of magnetic cards. The nautical stadium and the ice rink, to name a few, are still suffering from the problem. Subscribers must pay for their place. “But there will be postponements, assures Bertrand Cousin. Any entry already paid on a card will not be lost. »
Internal messaging only
“We didn’t think it would last this long. For me, in two or three days, it was going to be settled”, recognizes Julien, the swimmer. “But there is no stress, he agrees, philosopher. We know that our entries will be credited, we understand the situation, it changes habits, that’s all. “Impossible for example to consult the opening hours on the Internet since the sites of the city and the agglomeration are inaccessible.
On the bright side, the scourge of cyberattacks has become “more concrete” with this offensive. Caen is accelerating its cybersecurity reinforcement plan, initially spread over three years. All services will be back to normal within a month or so at the latest.