On the night of April 26 to 27, fiber optic cables were severed in France, causing an Internet outage in several regions. A particularly serious and disturbing act of malevolence. An investigation is underway.
The awakening was difficult for many Internet users in France, this Wednesday, April 27, 2022. As evidenced by the numerous reports made in the morning on the site DownDetector and on Free-Network, several French cities and regions found themselves deprived of a landline connection, and sometimes even of a mobile network. And for good reason: on the night of April 26 to 27, fiber optic cables providing long-distance broadband links were cut. More exactly, sectioned. In fact, although cable breaks are relatively frequent, they are generally due to human error, in particular during road works, or to bad weather, during violent storms or heavy snowfalls, for example. But this is not the case this time, the cuts being clearly the result of malicious acts.
Thus, three major connections were voluntarily cut during the night in Seine-et-Marne, in Essonne and in Meuse: Paris-Lyon, around 3:20 a.m., Paris-Strasbourg around 3:40 a.m., and Paris-Lille towards 5:20 a.m. With consequences all over the country, since Internet access has been interrupted in cities such as Grenoble, Marseille, Reims, Toulouse, Dunkirk, Calais and even Rennes, mainly for Free customers and, in to a lesser extent, from SFR, Orange and Bouygues. Incidentally, since these links are also used to supply relay antennas, mobile telephone networks have also been affected in certain areas. Of course, the operators’ technical teams intervened as quickly as possible to repair the damage and restore the connection. Most of the connections were functional again during the day of April 27, and everything seemed to be back to normal on Thursday morning April 28.
Severed fiber: a clearly malicious and coordinated act
The closeness of the hours, like the difficulty of access to the severed lines, leaves little doubt: this is a prepared and coordinated action. A malicious act intended to harm, as underlined by a “state source” – unfortunately anonymous – quoted in The Obswhich speaks of an operation “serious and very rare”. A real sabotage that goes well beyond the banal theft of raw materials – a common practice for copper lines – and simple vandalism as we sometimes see, especially with the fire in technical premises in Orange. “It is an attack of unprecedented scale”said Michel Combot, director general of the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT).
Without going so far as to evoke a terrorist action – even if the idea hovers heavily, in this period of generalized tension… – one cannot help but think of an operation carried out by a group of determined activists, with a still obscure, as is sometimes the case with certain actions of conspiracy activists who protest against the deployment of 5G. “This kind of incident of this magnitude never happens,” an unspecified source told AFP. “It’s the first time, and we don’t know who it is, for the moment”.
In order to find out more and identify the culprits, the “cyber” section of the Paris public prosecutor’s office, in charge of the case, has opened a criminal investigation for “damage to property likely to harm the fundamental interests of the Nation”, “obstructing an automated data processing system” and “conspiracy”. The investigations were entrusted to the DGSI, internal intelligence, and to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ). All the operators lodged a complaint and filed a civil action. We hope that the investigation will lead quickly to understand the motivations of the saboteurs. And, above all, that this kind of commando operation does not happen again…