Who Crippled France's Rail Network? 'Fake' Crowdstrike Worker Has An Answer

A few days ago, a tweet claiming responsibility for a global Microsoft outage triggered a meme fest on X. Today, the same man has returned with another viral post, this time taking credit for the chaos that ensued after three arson attacks on France's high-speed rail network. These incidents have paralysed train travel nationwide, just as Paris geared up to host the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics yesterday.

A Microsoft error had crippled Windows computers worldwide on July 19. It was later revealed that an update to the anti-virus program 'Falcon Sensor' by CrowdStrike caused the massive outage. Enter Vincent Flibustier, an X user posing as a CrowdStrike employee. Vincent broke the internet with an AI-generated photo of himself outside the CrowdStrike office, captioned, "First day at Crowdstrike, pushed a little update and taking the afternoon off." 

Last night, three separate arson attacks targeting France's high-speed rail network affected train travel nationwide. The attacks' timing and perpetrators remain unclear, but their impact was immediate and devastating.

Mr Flibustier, following a similar routine, swiftly uploaded an AI-generated image of himself standing in front of a poster of Societe Nationale Des Chemins De Fer Francais - France's state-owned railway network. The tweet has once again gone viral with Mr Flibustier's mission accomplished. 

First day of my new job at SNCF, did a little update on Fire alert system, taking now my afternoon off 😊 pic.twitter.com/f3twAKusFh

— Vincent Flibustier 👽 (@vinceflibustier) July 26, 2024

What Happened In France

Approximately 8 lakh passengers are expected to be affected over the weekend, with a quarter of a million already impacted on Friday alone, according to SNCF. The rail network was anticipated to be particularly busy this weekend, not only because of the Olympics but also as people return from or leave for their summer holidays.

There were delays of 90 minutes to two hours on services between Paris and France's north and east. One major branch of the network, the line to France's southeast, was spared after rail maintenance workers surprised unauthorized individuals on site.

High-speed rail operator Eurostar announced that around one in four services across its network linking France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany would be cancelled, including trains from Paris to London. Others would operate slower on regular lines not designed for high-speed trains.