France confirms data breach at government agency that manages citizens’ IDs
Source: TechCrunch
Data breach at the Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés (ANTS)
The French government agency that handles the issuing and management of citizens’ identity documents—including national IDs, passports, and immigration documents—confirmed Wednesday that it experienced a data breach.
In an announcement, the Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés (ANTS) said the data stolen in the breach could include:
- Full names
- Dates and places of birth
- Mailing and email addresses
- Phone numbers
The breach affected an undisclosed number of citizens. ANTS detected the attack on April 15 and is conducting an investigation to determine how the breach happened and its impact. People whose data was affected are being notified.
ANTS did not specify how many people were affected, but some reporting suggests millions may have had personal information stolen.
According to Bleeping Computer, a hacker advertised the stolen data on a hacking forum, claiming to have a database with 19 million records. The forum post referenced the same types of stolen information as mentioned in ANTS’ announcement and was published before ANTS publicly disclosed the breach on April 20.