French authorities on Wednesday arrested an unidentified 22-year-old man in connection with last week’s cyberattack on email servers at the French Interior Ministry.
Authorities provided few details about the suspect aside from his age and that he had been convicted of similar cyber crimes this year. The suspect reportedly has a history of perpetrating cyberattacks on government agencies.
The Dec. 11 attack targeted the email systems of the Interior Ministry and compromised an unspecified number of files. A hacking group claimed responsibility for the attack shortly afterward and stated that it had stolen the data of millions of French citizens.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said authorities have a much clearer picture of the attack one week later.
“A few days ago, I said that we didn’t know whether there had been any compromises or not. Now we know that there have been compromises, but we don’t know the extent of them,” Mr. Nunez said.
The files were likely accessed through the carelessness of employees sharing information and passwords through messaging apps and email, according to Mr. Nunez.
The interior minister said authorities acted quickly enough to prevent the compromise of millions of pieces of data, but that the breach is likely still significant.
Mr. Nunez added that there is an administrative investigation into the breach and the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties has been notified.
Authorities have not received any ransom demands from the hacking group that claimed responsibility, Mr. Nuez confirmed on Wednesday.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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