Cyberattack against the City of Caen: what is the extent of the damage?
By Christophe Jaquet
Published on
Since Monday September 26, 2022, the computer systems of the City of Caen (Calvados) and Caen la mer are victims of a cyberattack. The announcement was made by Mayor Joël Bruneau, at the start of the municipal council’s back-to-school session, after 6 p.m.
No justified figures
According to Hélène Drieu, Caen’s DSI director (information systems department), the cyberattack was discovered “by chance” by connecting to the antivirus platform at 3:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon. “We saw that something was wrong.” The first intrusion attempts took place around 2:30 p.m. “There were 10 intrusion attempts per second”.
We do not know what data was taken but we know that it is not encrypted and protected data.
There should therefore not be, a priori, a ransom demand.
Crisis unit and filing of complaints
A crisis cell is open within the town hall of Caen. It is made up of 10 agents from the DSI of Caen. They are in contact with a company specializing in cybercrime based in Paris to visualize the extent of the attack. “For now, it is still too early to know the extent of the attack,” concludes Hélène Drieu. What we do know is that two servers have been infiltrated out of the 200 in Caen and Caen la mer.
The IP address of the pirates is known, it will be used for the filing of a complaint which will take place during the day of Tuesday, September 27.
Some unfavorable services
As a result, some services no longer work: websites of the City of Caen, the Caen la mer urban community, the conservatory, museums, theatre, libraries, tram 2028 are inaccessible. Regarding education and early childhood, the family kiosk is inaccessible.
Sports and cultural establishments (ice rink, swimming pools, conservatory, theatre, museums, etc.) remain open. Payment is by cash and checks only.. The loan of books is possible in the neighborhood libraries.
Receptions remain open at the Caen town hall, in Caen la mer, at the CCAS and in the France Service spaces and the neighborhood life centers. Telephone standards can be reached. The digital procedures for France Service spaces are working normally.
With regard to civil status: “birth and death certificates are registered manually”, explains the City. “You can come and collect identity cards and passports”. In contrast, appointment is not possible.
Ill-prepared communities?
Since the beginning of 2022, Caen has been the latest victim of a long list of communities concerned. In addition to the southern Ile-de-France hospital center of Corbeil-Essonnes, and the Cahors hospital, the cities of Angers, Annecy, Guingamp, Saint-Cloud or Saumur were caused by a virus of the type Ransomware.
According to the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi), relayed by the specialized news site The digital factory, these communities would be “20% of the victims of ransomware” in 2020. They would be ill-prepared in the face of these attacks. This is why, coincidentally, the national gendarmerie, with the prefecture of Calvados, launched this Tuesday, September 27 a specific training for elected officials.
According to the Prefecture of Calvados, the ransomware increased by 95% in 2021.
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