The French tax authorities data breach has turned into a government crisis after it was revealed that the attackers were able to extract data related to around 678,000 individuals and companies. The stolen files do not provide direct access to protected tax accounts, but they contain information capable of making phishing and identity theft messages more convincing than usual random attacks.

Criminal Investigation and Government Meeting

Bloomberg reported that the French Prime Minister will hold a crisis meeting to review the attack, which lasted for two months. After confirming the breach of records of hundreds of thousands of individuals and companies. The affected information includes tax and personal data that can be exploited to target victims. Specialized cybercrime agencies are investigating how access was gained to the financial management systems and the identities of those responsible for the operation.

The danger starts after closing the gap

The attacker does not need to steal the password itself to cause significant damage. He can use tax income, withholding rate, family status, and address to craft a communication that appears to be from an official source. Then, he demands the victim to update their bank details or pay a fake amount. The incident also poses a difficult question for government institutions about internal access permissions and the ability of one compromised account to search within large databases without early detection of the extraction process.