French tax hacks steal at least 678,000 accounts' data

French tax authorities said hackers stole data from at least 678,000 individual and professional tax accounts in June and from 200,000 land registry accounts in a separate July breach.

The General Direction of Public Finance said the June breach included names, reference income data and tax rates paid. It said the July theft concerned land registry accounts.

A group calling itself Zerobytes had earlier claimed responsibility on a dark-web forum. The group said it had details on 250,000 land registry accounts involving about two million land and property owners, and claimed access to a VPN used by tax officials. French authorities gave a lower figure for the land registry accounts.

The ANTS agency, which handles identity document applications, was hit in April by an attack affecting the data of nearly 12 million individuals and professionals. In February, the finance ministry said a large-scale breach had led to the theft of details from 1.2 million bank accounts.