The Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, announced this Thursday, March 28 on RTL the “temporary suspension” of the messaging of the Digital Work Spaces (ENT) of educational establishments.
In recent days, several schools in France have been the subject of attack threats transmitted through otorhinolaryngology. In total, since the middle of last week there have been 323 threats in France, in 44 departments and 20 academies, the Ministry of National Education told AFP on Thursday.
“The malicious acts that were committed were through the hacking of (student) accounts,” the minister explained to RTL, specifying that the accounts were “blocked” upon receiving the threats.
A suspension “until spring break probably”
The messages will remain suspended “for a while,” “probably until spring break,” he added. Spring break lasts, depending on the area, from April 6 to May 13.
This suspension comes “so that we can, if necessary, restore our students’ accounts and further ensure, perhaps in the longer term, access to ENT messaging,” the minister stated.
ORLs allow students to have access to various digital resources as part of their courses (manuals, educational applications, etc.), shared workspaces and messages used in particular to communicate with their teachers.
“Absolutely terrible” videos
In a message sent to students’ parents on Wednesday afternoon, the Paris rectorate reported that “more than fifty academic establishments” had “received bomb threat messages today.”
“Some messages were accompanied by a video of great violence,” the rector added in his message to parents, explaining that “this morning it was decided to close the students’ messaging, delete the message and block the usurped accounts.” “A complaint has been filed and an investigation led by the Paris prosecutor’s office is underway,” he added. Students and staff “particularly affected” by this message are “supported by academic and establishment listening units.”
“There were absolutely terrible videos and we cannot allow these types of threatening messages to proliferate,” Nicole Belloubet also declared this Thursday.
Source: BFM TV
