Cyberattack Disrupts High School Exams In Greece, Sparking Political Controversy

The Greek Education Ministry fell victim to a massive cyberattack, disrupting the country’s high school exams. The incident, considered the most extensive cyberattack in Greece’s history, targeted the centralized high school examination platform, the Subject Bank. This platform plays a crucial role in administering end-of-year exams and establishing a uniform standard nationwide.

The ministry revealed that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, aimed at overwhelming the platform, occurred for two consecutive days, causing outages and delays in the exams. These attacks involved computers from 114 countries, and while they created significant disruptions, they ultimately failed to incapacitate the system entirely.

As a result of the outages, students were left waiting for hours in classrooms before the exams could commence. This incident quickly became a political dispute, intensifying the aftermath of the inconclusive general election earlier this month. With a caretaker government currently in place, Greece is gearing up for a new election scheduled for June 25. The outgoing conservative New Democracy party is considered the frontrunner for re-election.

In response to the cyberattack, a judicial investigation has been launched under the direction of a Supreme Court prosecutor, who will be aided by the police’s cybercrime division. The Education Ministry labeled this attack as the most significant ever executed against a Greek public or government organization, characterizing it as large-scale and sustained. Authorities are working tirelessly to identify the source and motive behind this cyberattack and enhance the security measures protecting critical infrastructure.