Four weeks after the attack on its website, the town hall of Houilles is still operating slowly.
"It will take us another good month to find the normal face of software," laments Julien Chambon, the mayor (LREM).
A sabotage that took place on January 29, but whose consequences are still very present in the daily life of municipal services.
“We cannot yet do certain things because we need to re-enter this data,” continues the elected official.
To enroll a child in extracurricular activities, for example, there are records of children who are no longer in the software.
It's tedious work, you have to take the information back to paper, re-type it in the machine ... It can represent four weeks of work and ten agents mobilized.
"
When the god of death gets involved
The enemy is unknown.
He takes the name of "Ryuk", god of death in Japanese culture.
This virus, presumably shaped in South Korea in 2018, is now one of the most widespread in the world, and sows immense unrest in hospitals.
It is ransomware, a method that encrypts data and asks you to pay to regain access to it.
“We are talking about sensitive information on social assistance, electoral lists, those who have children, list Sophie Primas, senator (LR) of Yvelines.
It is interesting for resale.
In response, the town hall was only able to file a complaint.
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Meanwhile, the virus devours everything on its way.
“Almost 90% of our servers have been contaminated, all of our backups too,” explains Julien Chambon.
The impact was massive, it was a shock for the officers.
One could not imagine such a magnitude.
Forty years of data are inaccessible.
"
"Some people literally discover the thing"
To avoid wasting too much time cleaning your equipment - and taking the risk of keeping traces of the virus - the town hall of Houilles has decided to no longer reuse its equipment and to invest in "recreating a new system, a new server and a new network ”.
By delegating, this time, the storage of data to an external organization: Microsoft.
This made it possible to relaunch e-mails and financial files, a lesser evil for a town of about 32,000 inhabitants.
From this mishap emerges another problem than the lack of protection: ignorance of risk.
“We knew it existed, but it was still very abstract, admits Julien Chambon.
It is in this sense that the Yvelines gendarmerie launched a prevention movement.
“Some literally discover the thing, admits Sylvain Tortellier, colonel and commander of the departmental group.
We do prevention, as recently with the agglomeration of Rambouillet.
But we also have some good surprises with municipalities organized around a CISO, an Information Systems Security Referent, so knowledge is very variable.
"
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Problem: investing in digital protection costs several thousand euros and only sufficiently large municipalities could afford it.
"But you have no choice, it will always cost you less in the long term than losing your data," retorts Eddie Ait, mayor (EELV) of Carrières-sous-Poissy and digital referent of the association of mayors of 'Île-de-France (AMIF).
A public market launched in the agglomeration of Saint-Germain Buckles de Seine
For someone who is also a community advisor for Grand Paris Seine and Oise in charge of digital technology, a single solution would make it possible to harmonize security.
“We need security audits.
This consists of powering up the system and checking if it cracks, with the highest possible security level and the latest updates.
By doing this, you reduce attacks by 99%.
I assure you, this is not luxury.
I even had my mayor's accounts hacked on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
"
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With the confinement and then the curfew, the attacks would have exploded.
“Recent intrusions are essentially linked to the development of teleworking,” says Eddie Ait.
On even less secure connections than at the town hall, the agents would expose themselves more.
Faced with this exacerbated risk, initiatives are emerging, such as within the Saint-Germain Buckles de Seine agglomeration community, of which Houilles is a part.
"Two weeks after the attack, we concluded a public contract to call on computer security services," says Julien Chambon.
It comes to pool cybersecurity resources.
If a municipality smaller than Houilles needs it, it can knock on the door of the city and help will be put in place within 15 days.
"An evolution that will perhaps provide the answers to the question the mayor is asking himself:" Are we stopping tinkering?
"
What are the digital barrier gestures?
Faced with the risks of cyber attacks, a few rules are in order to protect your personal data from virtual burglaries.
"Hackers and victims spend more time at home, behind their computer," recalls Sylvain Tortellier, colonel and commander of the Yvelines gendarmerie group.
It starts with keeping systems and software up to date.
Then, for your email accounts, social networks, bank or public service sites, it is a question of diversifying your passwords.
Complicated code will also be more robust.
Double authentication, offered by many sites, is also recommended, unlike memorizing passwords, not Google in particular.
Also pay attention to the sites you visit, and check if they are secure.
Finally, beware of too tempting offers received by email.
Phishing could cost you money.
The Grand Paris Seine et Oise intercommunality (GPSEO) has thus carried out a test by sending false fraudulent emails to its agents.
The result proved that too many people still fall into the trap.
