Thousands of Internet users have been deprived of the Internet in France and Europe due to a possible cyber attack on a satellite network that took place at the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, according to agreed sources.
According to Orange, nearly 9,000 subscribers to a satellite Internet service from its Nordnet subsidiary in France have been disconnected from the Internet following a “cyber event” that occurred on February 24 at Viasat, a US satellite operator whose customer it is. .
Eutelsat, the parent company of the bigblu satellite Internet service, which has nearly 50,000 customers in Europe, also confirmed to AFP on Friday that “some” bigblu subscribers have been affected by Viasat’s outage without asking for a more accurate estimate. .
In the United States, Viasat said on Wednesday that the “cyber event” had caused a “partial network outage” for customers “in Ukraine and elsewhere” in Europe dependent on its KA-SAT satellite.
Viasat did not elaborate on this “cyber event”, stating that the “police and government partners” had been notified and were “cooperating” with the investigations.
If the euphemism “cyber event” leaves no doubt that this is a cyber attack, the fact was confirmed on Thursday by General Michel Friedling, who heads the French space command.