Top prosecutor orders probe into cyberattack targeting exam platform
Greece’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into two cyber attacks targeting a state-run exam platform on Tuesday morning, which has disrupted the end-of-year exams taking place in high schools around the country.
Isidoros Dogiakos asks law-enforcement authorities to identify those behind the attack and confiscate any relevant evidence. The probe will be carried out with the help of the police’s Cyber Crime Unit.
The inquiry will be handled by the head of Athens’ First-Instance Court Prosecutor, Antonis Eleftherianos.
The denial-of-service (DDoS) attack caused the Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) which supports the platform from which teachers choose topics for the exams, to crash, along with the Panhellenic School Network, the internet service provider of the Ministry of Education, which connects school rooms and administrational services.
The second cyberattack was revealed earlier in the day by the General Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Alexandros Koptsis. “This attack that took place yesterday and I must say that it also took place this morning, is an attack on education,” he told ANT1, adding that today’s cyberattack was bigger than Monday’s.
Asked why there are no safeguards in place to protect critical infrastructure, Koptsis said the attack “hit another part of the infrastructure.”
The ministry official did not provide any further details on the attack, saying that the ministry is “fully activated.”
Officials from the ministries of Education and Digital Governance, and GRNET were quick to provide assurances to a concerned public that the security of nationwide university entrance exams, which start on Thursday, will not be compromised.
