In France, long-distance internet cables have been cut in an act of sabotage, leading to internet service disruptions across the country. This is the second disruption during the Paris Olympics, after high-speed train lines were targeted in a series of arson attacks hours before the start of the Games.
Marina Ferrari, Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs of France, said in X that in the early hours of Monday, several parts of France were hit by “damage” affecting telecommunications providers and having “localised consequences” on fibre optic services and mobile internet connectivity. Internet companies confirmed the damage.
The French Interior Ministry, which oversees the country’s law enforcement agencies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. French cybersecurity agency ANSSI told WIRED that the issues are not related to a cybersecurity incident.
At the time of writing, no one has claimed responsibility for either attack. Authorities have yet to identify any suspects involved in the cable-cutting sabotage, but believe the disruption to train services may have been Committed by people with “ultra-leftist” political leanings.
The incidents surrounding the Olympics come at a time when Russia has been blamed for a series of Disinformation targeting France and has also been linked to a number of Possible sabotage attacks in Europe.
France’s second-largest telecom company, SFR, appears to have been one of the hardest hit by the vandalism. “Our long-distance fiber network was sabotaged between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. last night in five different locations,” an SFR spokesperson told WIRED. SFR says its maintenance teams are working on repairing the damage and said the impact on its customers was “limited.”
“In addition, between three and eight other operators are affected because they use our long-distance network,” the spokesman said.
Nicolas Guillaume, CEO of telecoms company Nasca Group, which owns internet services company Netalis, told WIRED that he believed the damage was “intentional” and that internet service providers serving both consumers and businesses have been affected. Several of the damaged cables, according to images shared on X According to the CEO, the cables appear to have clean cuts. Guillaume says it is likely that people opened the ducts where the cables are stored and cut them. Internet company Free 1337 also confirmed that it was working to repair the damage.
While billions of people around the world use wireless connections, the underlying backbone of the Internet is made up of cables that span countries and oceans. This infrastructure, which can automatically reroute traffic to limit disruptions, can be fragile and vulnerable. Attack or disturbEU politicians have called for internet infrastructure security To be improved.
But this sabotage is not the first time that internet cables in France have been damaged in possibly deliberate acts. In late April 2022, crucial long-distance internet cables around Paris were deliberately cut and damaged, leading to outages affecting around 10 internet and infrastructure companies.
In that case, according to photographs published by the telecoms companies, the cables appeared to have been surgically cut, all at the same time, in three places, north, south and east of Paris. Thousands of people around Paris, and also in other areas further away from the French capital, were plunged into a temporary internet blackout as network operators re-routed traffic. “It’s a job done by professionals,” Guillaume said at the time.
Arthur PB Laudrain, a postdoctoral research associate in cyber diplomacy at King’s College London, says the latest incident appears “less serious” than the 2022 outages. “Such actions are well within the capabilities of ultra-left or environmentalist and anarchist groups, especially if they benefited from insider help or knowledge (current or former railway or network workers),” Laudrain says. “However, we cannot rule out the fact that a state actor is encouraging, supporting or directing such domestic groups to create plausible deniability of their involvement.”
