1. France Flabbergasted After Tax Authority Hacked
The French tax authority has been hacked. It wasn't the physical vault that was breached, but rather information security, compromising taxpayers' personal data. A total of 678,000 people were affected. It wasn't just names and phone numbers; highly specific tax-related details—such as income, tax rates, and family composition—were stolen. What is absurd is that this breach was first detected in late June. It has been two months, yet the public was only notified last week. Worse still, the tax authority didn't even discover it on their own; it was only after the hacker publicly announced last week, "I hacked the French tax authority, extracted the information of 678,000 people, and I'm going to sell it on the dark web," that officials checked and realized, "Oh, right? Our data was breached." When they rushed to investigate, they confirmed there had indeed been signs of external attacks in late June. So they blocked the external intrusion, but after blocking it, they didn't even check whether data had been leaked or not, and simply swept it under the rug. One of the tax authority's excuses is that the hacker didn't steal everything at once to avoid getting caught, but instead siphoned it off little by little, making it impossible to confirm the data leak earlier. With the heat now on them, the hacker publicly stated a few days ago that they already sold the information to two buyers on the dark web. The price was several thousand euros, amounting to several million to over ten million won in Korean currency. They also claimed that other interested buyers are continuing to reach out. The tax authority announced that they will contact all victims to inform them of the situation and issue warnings. However, it remains uncertain how quickly France, notorious for its sluggish administration, will actually move. The problem is that because the stolen data includes very specific tax information, scammers can launch far more sophisticated frauds than simple phishing. For instance, they could say, "Your income tax came out to X amount, and you paid Y amount a short while ago. However, you are now eligible for a refund. Please claim your refund." When they accurately cite the exact amount of income tax you paid and the date, it becomes very easy to be tricked into thinking, "Ah, this is from the tax authority." The moment you click the refund application link, your actual bank account gets wiped out. The possibility of high-level scams of this nature has dramatically increased, and if this had happened in Korea, all hell would have broken out. In fact, if even a single such incident had occurred, the commissioner of the National Tax Service would have found it difficult to keep their job.
2. Hacked, Hacked, and Hacked Again
What is truly absurd, however, is that this is not a one-off event. In France these days, public institution and national intelligence websites are hacked with alarming frequency. Let's recap just this year alone. In January, the French immigration office was hacked. 2.41 million foreign nationals' documents were leaked. In March, the French Ministry of Education was hacked. The information of 243,000 teachers was leaked. In April, the Ministry of Education was hacked again. The information of 3.5 million students was leaked. This also included 7.2 million report cards. Also in April, ANTS, the official national identity document issuance agency, was hacked. 11.7 million accounts were compromised. An agency that issues government-certified documents—including various IDs such as driver's licenses, passports, and foreign residence permits—was breached. In June, a secure messenger used by government officials was hacked, compromising the data of 73,467 public servants. Then in July, the Ministry of Education was hacked yet again—marking the third time this year—and the scale of the damage this time has not even been figured out yet. And then there was this hacking incident targeting the tax authority, which occurred in June but was announced in August. In fact, the ANTS hacking incident back in April caused massive fallout. People were furious because someone could forge and walk around with their ID cards. At that time, the website was paralyzed for over a month trying to fix it. That was a huge inconvenience as well. I had applied for my driver's license back then, and the process, which normally takes six months, was delayed even further because of this. Following the ANTS hacking incident, the French government announced it would spend 200 million euros—roughly 320 billion won—to strengthen security. Yet, the Ministry of Education was hacked again, and now even the tax authority has fallen victim.
3. Surpassing the U.S. to Rank No. 1 in Hacking Incidents?
With the situation unfolding this way, France has added yet another dishonorable record to its name. In terms of the number of hacking victims—or more precisely, the number of compromised accounts—France ranked 4th globally in 2024. That climbed two spots to 2nd place globally in 2025. Based on the first quarter of this year, 23.45 million accounts have been leaked. It remains 2nd in the world. And who is number 1? The United States, with 60 million. The U.S. isn't doing stellar either. However, if we correct for the statistical distortion caused by the U.S. having a population about five times larger than France—which naturally inflates the absolute numbers—the story changes completely. When calculated by the number of hacking occurrences per 100,000 people, France stands at 35,164, while the U.S. is at 17,637. The U.S. drops to less than half of France, making France the overwhelming number one. Already, half of all hacking incidents occurring in Europe take place in France. Looking solely at hacking accidents, France has gone beyond being number one in Europe to effectively becoming number one in the world. Until last year's historic Coupang hacking incident, which compromised over 30 million accounts, Korea's figures were below one-third or one-half of France's, and hacking targeting governments or public institutions was far more negligible.
4. How on Earth Did France Become Easy Prey for Hackers?
So why has France become such easy prey for hackers, turning into a sloppy warehouse that gets breached on a whim? Various analyses are emerging, and among them, the one that makes the most sense is this: It is a well-known fact that Europe, including France, lags behind in digitalization. They have been pursuing digitalization belatedly, and government websites are no exception. Some of them are even so convenient that they feel better than Korea's. The problem, however, is that while they rushed to digitize the front end providing services, the back end protecting it lacked proper management. Furthermore, the public officials using these systems reportedly lack adequate security awareness, leading to leaks of login credentials and other information. Amidst all this, they became easy targets, and hackers have been looting here and there. France aims to launch a national digital agency by next year. The initiative is intended to gather previously scattered security-related functions into one place and manage them systematically. It remains to be seen whether France, a country ranked number one in hacking damage, will be able to shake off that stigma.
(Reported by Kwon Yeongin | Produced by Shin Hee-sook | Video by Kim Si-nae | Video Editing by Hong Jin-young | Design by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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