The French Ministry of Finance has disclosed a cybersecurity incident that impacted data associated with 1.2 million user accounts.
The investigation discovered that hackers gained access to the national bank account registry (FICOBA) and stole a database containing sensitive information.
The Ministry's announcement notes that in late January, a threat actor used credentials stolen from a civil servant with access to the interministerial information sharing platform.
The credentials gave the hacker access to part of a database that contained all bank accounts opened in French banking institutions and personal data:
Bank account details, including RIBs/IBANs
Account holder identity
Physical address
Taxpayer identification number (only in some cases)
The Ministry states that it took immediate action to restrict the threat actor’s access to its systems immediately after detecting the incident. However, it is believed that data of about 1.2 million accounts were already exposed to potential exfiltration.
FICOBA is a centralized state-managed registry of bank accounts in France, operated by the French tax authority, the Direction générale des Finances publiques (DGFiP).
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