Problems are still being recorded today with the subject bank.

According to alfavita.gr, teachers in schools have been trying since early in the morning to get subjects from the subject bank, but they are unable to access them.

The subject bank had collapsed across the country yesterday morning and finally went down after 9.30am, delaying the start of the first shift exams by two hours, which also delayed the second shift which would normally start at 10:00am: 30.

The result was to postpone exams – even for the 3rd high school – in some schools.

The Ministries of Education and Digital Governance attributed yesterday’s collapse of the Theme Bank platform to a malicious attack.

In a statement they issued they said:

“Informative note on the problem concerning the promotion and graduation exams in the high schools of the country.

Quotation marks:

  • The problem presented in the promotion exams of high school students was immediately addressed, thanks to the actions of the ministries, in more than 9 out of 10 schools.
  • There is no uncertainty for students who did not complete their exams today: They will be tested tomorrow as normal. A relevant circular will be sent to schools.
  • The case concerns exclusively the internal promotion and graduation exams of Lyceums. It is in no way connected with the National Examinations – which have a separate subject transmission system.

analytically

The problem: Since the early hours of the morning, the topic bank platform (https://trapeza.iep.edu.gr/) which is managed by the Institute of Educational Policy and is hosted on the EDYTE infrastructure (National Network of Technology and Research Infrastructures) received large-scale and long-lasting distributed attack (DDoS).

Simply put, there have been massive third-party hits to the platform (up to 280,000 connections per second) aimed at rendering it inoperable. These distributed DDoS attacks maliciously aim to prevent users from accessing the system smoothly. They are not a breach of the system nor are they able to gain access to its components and data.

Response: With joint actions of the IEP and EDYTE, the attack was contained at 9:20 and domestic connectivity and user access were restored. Malicious attacks persisted and continued after 9.20am, but were successfully dealt with.

Important note: The system that transmits the subjects in the High School exams is different from that of the National exams, which can NOT be affected by this type of malicious mass visits.

Students of the third high school: In some schools that did not take the subjects on time, the examinees left the examination centers, as a result of which some did not complete their examinations today.

So:

  • For the A’ and B’ Lyceum students, who were not examined today, they will be examined in the specific course within the prescribed period, that is until June 15.
  • The students of the 3rd grade of the General Lyceums, who were not examined today, will be examined tomorrow, Tuesday, and the results will be released the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant circular.
  • The students of the 3rd grade of Vocational Lyceums, who were not examined today (it concerns a few hundred people), will also be examined tomorrow, Tuesday, and the results will come out in the evening of the same day.”