Civil Protection victim of computer hacking and data theft

Civil Protection, an approved civil security association in France, indicated on Friday that it had been the victim of a computer hack and data theft in March, confirming information from the specialized site Frenchbreaches. The data leak concerns the eProtec platform, used by volunteers of this relief association, a spokesperson for the National Federation of Civil Protection (FNPC) told AFP. It “is part of a series of cyberattacks which have notably targeted several sports federations,” the FNPC wrote to its teams, according to Le Parisien.

Names, dates of birth, telephone numbers, roles in the association and data of minors were hacked, said this spokesperson. According to the Frenchbreaches site, more than 525,000 profiles were exfiltrated, which Civil Protection disputes, citing in particular “many duplicates in the leaked file”. The FNPC is “looking for exactly the number of people concerned”, the same source said.

Uncertainty over hacked data

“No hacked data belongs to people to whom Civil Protection has helped,” underlined the spokesperson for the association, who also does not confirm the figure of 15,000 photos put forward by the Frenchbreaches site. “Research is still underway to determine the information regarding the leak,” she added, assuring that the association learned of this hack on August 17. The association also indicates that it has filed a complaint with the anti-cybercrime section of the Paris public prosecutor's office.