French govt agency confirms breach as hacker offers to sell data

Source: Bleeping Computer

France’s government agency for issuing and managing administrative documents, the Agence nationale des titres sécurisés (ANTS), has disclosed a data breach after a threat actor claimed responsibility and said they stole citizen data.

On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, ANTS detected a security incident that may involve the disclosure of data from individual and professional accounts on the ants.gouv.fr portal.

Potentially exposed data

• Login ID
• Full name
• Email address
• Date of birth
• Unique account identifier
• Postal address (for some)
• Place of birth (for some)
• Phone number (for some)

ANTS is notifying those identified as impacted. The agency stated that the exposed information does not allow unauthorized access to its electronic portals, but it could be used in phishing and social‑engineering attacks.

Response and recommendations

• No immediate action is required from users.
• Users are advised to remain highly vigilant regarding any suspicious or unusual messages (SMS, phone calls, emails, etc.) that appear to come from ANTS.
• ANTS has notified the data protection authority (CNIL), the Paris Public Prosecutor, and the national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI).
• The sale or dissemination of the data is illegal.

19 million records claimed stolen

On April 16, a threat actor using the moniker breach3d claimed on hacker forums to have obtained up to 19 million records from ANTS. According to the actor, the stolen data includes:

• Full names
• Contact details
• Birth data
• Home addresses
• Account metadata
• Gender and civil status

The data has been offered for sale for an undisclosed amount and has not been broadly leaked yet.

BleepingComputer contacted ANTS for comment on the threat actor’s allegations but had not received a response at the time of publishing.