these strange messages from the French Army on social networks actually hide an exercise

Since Monday, the French Army’s X account has been sharing strange successions of letters. This is not an error, but an exercise in which Internet users can participate.

Like every year since 2014, the French army has organized Defnet, inter-army cyber defense training. From March 18 to 29, various large-scale incidents will be simulated on the networks of the French defense forces.

The primary objective of this exercise is to “consolidate the operational preparation of the armies in terms of defensive computer warfare”, indicates the website of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, checking the consistency of the actions of the different services in reaction to these simulated incidents. To communicate about this national exercise, the French Army is offering challenges to Internet users on its social networks. Since Monday, his X account (formerly Twitter) has been sharing strange messages, successions of letters.

These are in fact coded messages that cryptography enthusiasts will quickly decipher. The letters are simply offset by three letters. So the L becomes I, the E becomes B and the message “Ibp Xojbbp coxkzxfpbp p’bkqoxfkbkq xr zljyxq zvybo” correspond to “The French armies are training in cyber combat.”

But it’s just a game offered on social networks for fans of coded messages. Defnet is a very serious cyber defense exercise. The 2024 edition is taking place with representatives of the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi) and the command of the Ministry of the Interior in cyberspace (Comcyber) located in Rennes, the nerve center of the exercise. But cyber incidents will be deployed across the entire national territory, specifies the Ministry of the Armed Forces. This will be the case in particular in Mont-de-Marsan, Paris, Rennes, Brest and even Istres. A total of 15 management and service staffs will be engaged on 9 military sites in France.

Simultaneous incidents

Defnet plans to simulate cyber incidents of different types: compromises, attacks, intrusion attempts, exfiltration of personal or sensitive data. In total, up to 30 simultaneous incidents will be simulated. The training will take place on board different devices. Cyber ​​intervention groups will thus work on a frigate of the French Navy, on a Griffon of the Army or even on board an aircraft of the Air and Space Force. 15,000 cyber fighters will be mobilized.

The objective is to improve and regularly test French cyber defense in the face of increasingly frequent attacks, explains General Aymeric Bonnemaison, commander of cyber defense: “Cyber ​​attacks are permanent. We must permeate all of our structures and test our systems very regularly.”

These exercises evolve as the cyber threat strengthens. Since 2022, Defnet has been training cyber combatants in the IT fight for influence. That is to say all events linked to the information sphere. The Ministry of the Armed Forces specifies that “Maintaining a high level of expertise in French cyber defense also requires strengthening cooperation between military, public and private actors.” For this reason, Defnet integrates at several levels, industrialists and the main equipment manufacturers, signatories of the convention relating to cybersecurity, for the defense of weapon systems in service.