Topic Bank: Why isn't the major DDoS attack listed on Cloudflare Radar?
The assurances of the authorities that they have ensured the smooth conduct of the in-school exams in high schools after the first day, which had all the characteristics of a digital fiasco, proved to be empty
The head of the Institute for Educational Policy (IEP), Yiannis Antoniou, stated with excessive confidence to "Ef.Syn." that the scenario of Monday will not be repeated, when thousands of exhausted children were called to be examined after a long wait, while there were several cases where the procedure was postponed. And while according to the Ministries of Education and Digital Governance, additional protection measures were taken, the electronic platform of the Bank of Issues collapsed again yesterday with a bang.
See also: Cloudflare mitigates a DDoS attack with 71 million requests-per-second
Excuses
In their attempt to justify the unjustified, representatives of New Democracy are abdicating their responsibilities, placing all the blame on the caretaker government that has only been in office for a few days. “I remind you that at this moment ND is not in the government, it is a caretaker government,” said party spokesman Akis Skertsos, unflinchingly.
And the excuses continue… “The Topic Bank platform received 165 million hits from 114 countries. It is the most significant attack ever made on a Greek public government organization,” states yesterday’s joint announcement by the two ministries (Education and Digital Governance), with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Alexandros Koptsis, speaking of an “attack against education.”
But was the attack that large? "If the attack was a high-volume (high traffic volume DDoS), wouldn't it have been reflected in the relevant DDoS attack recording services such as CloudflareRadar (an Internet data traffic recording service) or even in the diagrams of the National Technology and Research Infrastructure Network - EDYTE S.A. - GR-NET, which is an agency of the Ministry of Digital Governance and through which all connection attempts were routed?
From the data of Cloudflare Radarattacks on GR-NET worldwide DDoS , we understand that if there was a cyberattack, it was not of the scale presented, except for a few spikes (sharp increases) on 25/5. So why did the authorities not talk about a cyberattack at the time or not take the necessary measures, even though they discovered the cyberattack on the day when thousands of students were trying to compete in their schools? , which records ", the research team of SecNews.gr , which deals with issues of information systems and network security, tells "Ef.Syn."
The questions about the New Democracy government are relentless and not, of course, about the caretaker government. The previous ministers must give convincing answers to the thousands of students, who for the second consecutive day experienced suffering, uncertainty and anxiety. Teachers tried in vain again early yesterday morning to enter the electronic platform to retrieve the exam questions and despite the assurances of the authorities that “the problem has been fixed”, they were still unable to enter the system. However, even after the platform was reopened, several hours later, problems were found with the drawing of questions, as in many cases only one option appeared.
At noon
The general secretary of OLME (Federation of Secondary Education Officials) Stella Manousogiorgaki, after pointing out that the majority of schools took subjects after 12 noon, also sheds light on certain aspects of the issue. “In the countryside where children travel by bus, the return routes are at 2:00 p.m.
So when the schedule is so far out of date, the rest of the day is disrupted. Too many students had no way to return home,” he tells “Ef. Syn.” and adds: “The results of the 3rd High School were supposed to be out by today (ed. yesterday). The teachers who were in the schools from 6.30 in the morning had to sit down after 15.00, when the exams were over, to correct even 200 papers each and to pass all the scores into the myschool system, since the national exams start on Thursday and the candidates should know if they were promoted and if they are entitled to participate in them.”
See also: Cloudflare takes over critical infrastructure protection through DNS services for the US
"Incompetent"
“The Ministry of Education and Culture is proving once again incapable of implementing even what it legislated, without dialogue and despite the reactions of the educational community. The real problem is that in the last four years it has let the infrastructure of public education collapse,” comments OLME. “It was their political decision to give millions of euros to private companies (Cisco) instead of strengthening the national school network, as OLME demanded in its repeated mobilizations,” says the Federation, commenting on the chaos with the Subject Bank that for a second day upset students and teachers.
The prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, yesterday sent an order to the head of the Athens First Instance Prosecutor's Office, Antonis Eleftherianos, requesting the assistance of the Cybercrime Prosecution Department for an in-depth investigation of the case.
As all eyes turn to this year's national exams, which are just a day away, anxiety is mounting. "Let's say we have the same attack. Shouldn't there be a safety net? A parallel system that we could use to assign the questions? We can't say that we were attacked by hackers. And if we are attacked every day during the national exams, what will we do? Will our children be able to take the exams in July?", wonders the president of OLME, Nikiforos Konstantinou. The authorities, who have so far proven to be completely insolvent, assure the opposite, claiming that "the national exams will be held normally and with absolute security."
Source: www.efsyn.gr
