Technology
French tax agency and education ministry suffer data breaches
Multiple cyberattacks hit French government infrastructure over the summer, compromising personal data for hundreds of thousands of people.
The short version
- France's tax agency (DGFiP) confirmed an intrusion that compromised the data of 678,000 individuals and businesses.
- The attacker gained access via compromised credentials, with exfiltration going undetected from late June until the data was listed for sale in mid-August.
- The incident accompanies breaches at the Ministry of Education, raising widespread political scrutiny and concerns over state cybersecurity resilience.
Key facts
- DGFiP General Director Amélie Verdier confirmed an August breach exposing 678,000 records containing names, fiscal information, family quotients, and tax rates.[Hacker News]
- The intruder's initial access to DGFiP systems was severed in late June, but data exfiltration was not discovered until the information was put up for sale on August 12.[Hacker News]
- The Ministry of Education suffered a breach between July 25 and July 26 involving its personnel training system, marking its third cybersecurity incident since January.[Hacker News]
- European Parliament member Aurore Lalucq publicly called for the resignation of Public Accounts Minister David Amiel following the DGFiP intrusion.[Hacker News]
What remains uncertain
- The hacker claimed a second late-July intrusion into DGFiP's cadastral server affecting over two million people, though the full scope of affected individuals remains unverified by authorities.[Hacker News]
- The total volume of personnel records compromised in the Education Ministry breach has not been publicly released.[Hacker News]
Sources
- France's tax agency got hacked (in French)Hacker News