France’s Ministry of the Economy and Finance has confirmed a major data breach after an attacker gained unauthorized access to systems operated by the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP), exposing information linked to 678,000 individuals and professionals.
The incident was discovered after a threat actor using the name “ZeroBytes” claimed responsibility for the attack and advertised a stolen database for sale on the PwnForums hacking forum on August 12.
An investigation launched following the incident found that compromised access points had been used to view and extract information belonging to 678,000 people and businesses. The exposed information includes sensitive tax details such as reference tax income, family quotient and withholding tax rates.
For businesses, the stolen information includes company names and SIREN numbers. Authorities also confirmed that cadastral information, including addresses and property sizes, was accessed during the breach.
However, the French Finance Ministry said that individual and professional online accounts were not compromised. User IDs and passwords were also not exposed in the incident.
After detecting the unauthorized access, France’s tax administration shut down access to sensitive information systems. The investigation is continuing with assistance from France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to determine the full impact of the attack.
ZeroBytes also claimed to have accessed the Serveur Professionnel de Données Cadastrales (SPDC), an online platform operated by the French tax authority that provides access to central land registry and property ownership information.
The attacker claimed the platform provided access to data on roughly 20 million French citizens but said they had only managed to extract 252,149 records containing information on more than 2 million people.
ZeroBytes also claimed to still have access to the system and offered the database for sale on the hacking forum, saying the extraction process was difficult and could have taken months to complete.
The French Finance Ministry said it will begin contacting affected individuals next week through email or letters. The notifications will explain what information may have been accessed or stolen and provide details about the precautions affected people should take.
The breach is the latest in a series of cyberattacks and data breaches targeting French government agencies in recent months.
In January, France’s data protection authority fined the national employment agency France Travail €5 million after hackers stole personal information belonging to 43 million people.
One month later, France’s Ministry of Finance disclosed another breach involving more than 1.2 million user accounts after hackers stole a database from FICOBA, the country’s national bank account registry.
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More recently, France Titres, the government agency responsible for issuing and managing administrative documents, confirmed a breach after a threat actor offered for sale a database containing 19 million records allegedly stolen from the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS).
