It was not “an attack on the network” as such (the goal was never to disrupt the network's primary functions, so "the France" was really never "hit") but it was

It was not “an attack on the network” as such (the goal was never to disrupt the network's primary functions, so "the France" was really never "hit") but it was actually a “side-channel exploit” (and effectively a kind of "phreaking" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking ). And it was really brilliant! https://www.inc.com/magazine/19990915/13554.html https://www.inc.com/magazine/19990915/13554.html