The Directorate General of Health (DGS) recognized this Thursday with franceinfo of “incidents” recurring on the SI-DEP platform, which provides the results of Covid tests. The slowdowns are linked to “too large seizures”, as well as attempted computer attacks, according to the DGS.
“The overloads are linked to unauthorized robots”, a kind of software programmed to steal data or slow down a web service, “or attempted denial of service attacks”, whose goal is to make a service unavailable, explains the DGS to franceinfo. “These malfunctions last between less than five minutes and two hours”, but can be repeated several times in the same day.
In recent days, the SI-DEP platform is also overloaded by more than 1.8 million tests carried out daily in pharmacies, in addition to those made in laboratories and hospitals. The incidents were all resolved and “no results were lost”, ensures the General Directorate of Health.
Increased server capacity
The DGS IT specialists daily block IP addresses, restart databases and increase the computing and memory capacities of the servers hosting the SI-DEP platform. The current capacity being three million tests per day, “it was decided to quadruple this capacity, or 12 million tests per day, to absorb these concentrated peaks”, assures the DGS. “The new machines are being installed and configured.”