France's Interior Ministry was targeted by a cyberattack a few days ago, which compromised email accounts and allowed hackers to access sensitive police files, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed on Wednesday.
"We were the target of a malicious intervention a few days ago," Nuñez said in an interview with the Franceinfo portal.
A judicial investigation is underway "to find the perpetrator very quickly," the Telegraph reports.
The breach occurred when attackers accessed "several professional email mailboxes" and "recovered access codes," the minister said.
The hackers "were able to consult a number of important files," including the Criminal Data Processing System (TAJ) and the Wanted Persons File (FPR), Nuñez said.
"We still don't know the extent of the compromise. To date, several dozen files may have been removed from the system," he added.
Nuñez said he could not say absolutely whether this would compromise the investigations or not, but insisted that it "does not endanger the lives of our compatriots."
The minister said no compensation claims had been received. The minister attributed the intrusion to “carelessness” despite regular reminders about security procedures.
"It only takes a few individuals who don't respect these rules," he said.
The attack, which lasted "several days", targeted email accounts at the Place Beauvau ministry, which employs nearly 300,000 people.
Last week, BFMTV revealed that the ministry had detected suspicious activity targeting its email servers.
A group of hackers then claimed without providing evidence that they had access to data from more than 16 million people in police files. /Telegraph
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