Tax hack: What we know about the cyberattacks on French government agencies

French government systems, notably the tax authority (DGFIP), were hit by a major cyberattack in June and July that exposed data belonging to hundreds of thousands of households and businesses, including land registry information. The breach became public on August 13, and by the time officials addressed it, the tax authority hack was confirmed to have affected 678,000 individuals and businesses. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting on August 17 to ensure affected taxpayers were individually notified about what data may have been exposed and what precautions to take. Budget Minister David Amiel apologized at an August 18 press conference, and the Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation. The government also reviewed a cybersecurity plan for public administrations launched in April, which includes 200 million euros for interministerial cybersecurity, and Lecornu asked for its deployment to be accelerated.