The French tax office is planning to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to probe for weaknesses after it was targeted by a cyberattack that exposed personal details of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers.
AI increases the number of cyber threats and should be used to combat them, David Amiel, the French budget minister, told reporters in Paris on Aug 18. "In the race against hackers, the state cannot slow down,” he said.
A hacker obtained information of about 350,000 individuals and 250,000 companies, with some data including taxable incomes and tax withholding rates, the minister said. Data relating to the address and size of real estate holdings were also accessed in the breach, which took place in June and July, according to an earlier government statement.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu held a crisis meeting on Aug 17 to respond to the cyberattack and ordered the administration to inform victims as soon as possible. The first notifications have already been sent. Businesses targeted will be notified starting next week, Amiel said.
A judicial investigation is underway, Lecornu’s office said in a statement on Aug 16.
The seriousness of the breach, which accessed some of the government’s most sensitive and well-protected data, has caused a political uproar over official information technology systems. Socialist senators demanded a parliamentary inquiry into the matter. Right-wing presidential hopeful Bruno Retailleau said on X that France "is the second-most-affected country in the world by cyberattacks. And the government still hasn’t done anything to protect us.”
Since the beginning of 2026, several French public services have been compromised by hacks and data leaks, including a February attack on the National Bank Account Registry, also under the tax collection agency, and one on the public education system.
The tax agency hacker, who goes by the name "ZeroBytes,” said they breached servers and gained access to the data via a virtual private network that allowed them to view an internal tool used to search information on French taxpayers.
A person alleging to be ZeroBytes told Bloomberg they have sold some of the taxpayer data already. The hacker has also taken responsibility for breaches of other French companies, including retailer Bureau Vallée.
The company was hit by a recent cyberattack, Bureau Vallée chief executive officer Adrien Peyroles said in an interview on Aug 18.
France’s National Cybersecurity Agency, the ANSSI, will conduct an in-depth audit to establish the precise circumstances and causes of the tax office hack. Its deputy head, Stéphane Bajard, said on Aug 18 that such attacks are simpler and less costly than ransomware.
In 2025, the agency reported a 50% increase in data-exfiltration incidents from a year earlier, targeting all sorts of organisations. "The first half of 2026 shows that this trend is continuing,” Bajard said.
Tax office head Amelie Verdier told reporters in Paris on Aug 18 that a breach was also found on a public portal that has a succession database used by creditors to get in touch with heirs.
By year-end, all tax agents with data access will be equipped with USB tokens to allow double authentication, Verdier said. – Bloomberg
