More than two weeks after their computer hacking, the majority of official sites in the Walloon Region are still inaccessible. They should only remain a few days old, but the work of verification of computer scientists is much longer than expected.
“This site is inaccessible”: this same error message has always been there for more than 15 days. Since Thursday, April 17 and this cyber attack against the sites of the Walloon administration, they have since been cut by the authorities. The next day, the spokesperson for the Wallonia Public Service explained to us: “We prefer to extinguish everything to prevent there to be an attack on our systems which is much more damaging.”
Three days later, the Minister-President Wallon Adrien Dolimont reassures: “There are about fifty people within the administration who are mobilized for that, with obviously a work work, because it is 24 a day, 7 days a week.”
They are mobilized day and night to check the 800 applications, 10,000 computers and thousands of servers. The story of a few days. “But we want to take the 24-48 hours necessary to make sure that we have not left a flaw in our system”we were explained to the SPW.
-The problem is still not solved
But two weeks later, status quo. For Michel Delgueldre, computer judicial expert, such a delay testifies to a certain imparation. “Two weeks is still relatively long. The duration of restoration of a system following a cyber attack is often a reflection of the preparation of the organization in the face of cyber attacks. If I am told that it takes time because we are in the process of securing the site, it is that the site was perhaps not secure before.”
The Cyber threat is not new, but investments dedicated to computer science are insufficient to effectively protect the administration.
“It is expensive and the great principle is also that it happens to everyone except ourselves. And so we are preparing, but we say that it takes time, since it costs, since it bothers everyone, we do not do so from the principle that the day it happens, it will work.”
Despite our requests, the Wallonia public service did not wish to react, but it promises 10 million euros to strengthen cybersecurity. IT Piracy Public Service of Wallonia SPW
