The French interior minister confirmed that a cyberattack breached the Interior Ministry, compromising its email servers.
The French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced on Friday that threat actors compromised email servers at the Ministry of the Interior.
The attack was detected overnight between December 11 and 12, and according to the French interior minister, attackers gained access to some document files, though data theft remains unconfirmed.
“There has been a cyber attack. An attacker was able to access a number of files … there is no evidence that they were seriously compromised,” Nunez told RTL radio.
Nunez added that the government launched an investigation into the incident, which is still ongoing.
“We have no evidence of serious compromises. We are investigating, both judicially, and above all, we have strengthened our level of security. The access procedures to the information system for all our agents have been tightened,” he added.
The French Interior Minister did not share technical details about the attacks.
In response to the security breach, the ministry tightened security and reinforced access controls across its information systems in response.
Authorities are exploring all scenarios for the cyberattack, including foreign interference, hacktivism, or cybercrime, as an investigation seeks to determine its origin.
In April, the French government attributed a four-year hacking campaign targeting a dozen French entities to the Russia-nexus group APT28. The Russia-linked APT28 group targeted or compromised a dozen government organizations and other French entities, the French Government revealed. In 2024, it was observed attacking OT organizations and linked to cyberattacks on 60 entities in Asia and Europe.
Since 2021, APT28 has targeted or compromised French ministerial bodies, local governments, DTIB, aerospace, research, think-tanks, and financial entities. In 2024, attacks primarily focused on governmental, diplomatic, and research sectors, with some campaigns specifically hitting French government organizations.
Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, French interior minister)
