Online system for applying to Czech secondary schools hacked

The online application system for Czech secondary schools, the launch of which had already been delayed due to a technical error, was hacked on Saturday afternoon, news site Deník N reported. The DDoS attack started at around 12:35 and continued for about ten minutes, Miroslav Krejčí, the director of the organisation Cermat which is responsible for the system, told the Czech News Agency. However, thanks to automatic protection systems against DDoS attacks, the system itself was not affected, he said. For the first two minutes of the attack, some users had problems logging in or loading the page, but this was due to the cybersecurity measures in place rather than the cyberattack itself, he explained.

The online application system opened on Friday shortly before midnight after almost 48 hours of delays. Around 4,000 applications had already been submitted by Saturday afternoon.