A possible cyber attack on a satellite network that took place at the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine has lost thousands of European Internet users, including 9,000 in France.

Combined sources say that thousands of Internet users in France and Europe have lost their Internet access due to a possible cyber attack on the satellite network that took place at the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine. According to Orange, its French subsidiary Nortnet’s satellite Internet service has lost “almost 9,000 subscribers” to its “cyber event” clientele on February 24 at the US satellite operator Viazat.

Utelsat, the parent company of the Big Blue satellite internet service, confirmed on Friday evening that one-third of the 40,000 BigBlow subscribers in Europe (Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland) were affected by the Viasat crash. In the United States, Viasat on Wednesday claimed that a “cyber event” had caused a “partial network failure” for customers in Europe, Ukraine and elsewhere, depending on its KA-SAT satellite.

Vyas did not provide further details, noting that “police and government partners” had been notified and were “assisting” the investigation. If the discourse of “cyber-event” leaves little doubt that this is a cyber-attack, this fact was confirmed on Thursday by General Michael Friedling, who heads the French space command.

5800 windmills

“For a few days, shortly after the start of operations, we had a satellite network, which specifically covered Europe and was particularly affected by the cyber attack in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of terminals were not immediately activated. , Vyasat “.

These disruptions affect 5,800 wind farms in Germany and Central Europe with a capacity of 11 gigawatts. “Remote monitoring and control of thousands of wind turbines is currently only possible to a limited extent due to the massive disruption of satellite connectivity in Europe,” German Enercon, the manufacturer of these wind turbines, said in a statement this week.

Enercon says the trouble started on February 24, the first day of the Ukrainian invasion. “There is no danger to the wind turbine” It constantly produces power, but cannot be reset remotely if needed, the manufacturer explains. A report by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), quoted in the Handelsplot newspaper on Friday, attributed the crash to cyber-attacks.

New extinction virus

Military and cyber experts fear that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict could erupt into “cyber-armageddon” cyber-attacks with significant consequences for civilians in Ukraine and Russia, but are rampant in other parts of the world. Or “splash”, according to a word recently used by a French military officer. For now, the worst situation seems to have been avoided, with the observed attacks having their consequences and geographical dimensions.

Cyber ​​security companies have observed attacks in Ukraine by a virus that destroys new data, the actual effects of which are little known. In Russia, corporate sites have been rendered inaccessible from abroad, and they continue to be disabled in order to protect themselves from DOS attacks.