Hackers carried out a sustained cyber intrusion against France’s Interior Ministry, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed Wednesday.
The attack unfolded over several days and targeted professional email accounts inside the Place Beauvau administration.
The ministry employs nearly 300,000 people across France.
Nuñez said officials discovered the breach after detecting abnormal internal activity.
He publicly acknowledged the incident during an interview with the Franceinfo broadcaster.
Access to Sensitive Police Databases
Attackers entered several work email inboxes belonging to ministry staff.
They recovered login credentials that allowed broader access to internal systems.
Nuñez said the intruders viewed multiple sensitive police files.
These systems included the Criminal Records Processing System, known as the TAJ.
They also accessed the Wanted Persons File, or FPR.
Authorities still cannot measure the full damage caused by the intrusion.
Nuñez said hackers may have extracted several dozen files from the network.
He said officials cannot yet determine whether investigations suffered any impact.
However, he insisted the breach did not endanger public safety.
The attackers made no ransom demand, according to the minister.
Investigations and Official Reactions
Nuñez attributed the intrusion to failures in following basic security rules.
He said the ministry regularly reminds staff to respect digital protection procedures.
Even limited negligence can create serious vulnerabilities, he warned.
The attack focused on internal email infrastructure over multiple days.
Earlier, BFMTV reported suspicious behavior affecting the ministry’s email servers.
Afterward, a hacker group claimed access to data involving more than 16 million people.
The group offered no proof to support its claim.
Nuñez dismissed the allegation as false.
The ministry reported the incident to the CNIL, as required by law.
Nuñez also ordered an internal administrative review.
France’s Anti-Cybercrime Office now leads the judicial investigation into the breach.
