Incidents of an unprecedented scale took place last night on the national fiber network managed by SFR, leaving many regions of France without an Internet connection this morning. Cables were cut in the middle of the night, acts qualified as malicious, even sabotage or cyberterrorism.
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If you are having difficulty accessing Internet today you are not alone. The fiber links of several cities in France were cut overnight. It’s not just the fiber connections that have been impacted. These links, or backbones, all carry the data of certain operators, including for ADSL connections, mobile antennas and certain data centers. The cables are managed by SFR and form the core of the Free and SFR networks.
According to The Parisian, these are underground cables that were cut in Fresnes-en-Woëvre (Meuse), Meaux and Souppes-sur-Loing (Seine-et-Marne) and Le Coudray-Montceaux (Essonne) at tens of minutes intervals . It is the heart of the national fiber network which connects Paris to the cities of Lyon, Strasbourg and Lille as well as the surrounding regions. According to the Obsthe link with Lyon would also be severed at La Chapelle-la-Reine (Seine-et-Marne).
The perpetrators have not yet been identified
Free reports on Twitter to ” multiple malicious acts and shared photos of some of the severed cables. For the moment, there is no official explanation for these acts of vandalism but, according to AFP, the authorities have been seized. On Twitter, opinions differ. Some think that it was thieves who cut the cables to see if they contained copper. However, the way in which they were cut and the different locations targeted rather suggest intentional sabotage.
Free indicates that its teams have been mobilized since 4 a.m. and have succeeded in containing the incidents, except in Reims and Gravelines. Free and SFR have been able to redirect most of the traffic on backup links and repairs are underway. On the other hand, networks ofOrange and Bouygues would not be affected.
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