The Paris prosecutor's office has confirmed the arrest of a 22-year-old youth on suspicion of a recent cyberattack on the French Ministry of the Interior. The suspect, born in 2003, is already known to the justice system for similar acts, for which he was convicted in 2025. The cyberattack, described as a 'serious act' by the Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, affected email servers, as the perpetrator(s) obtained access codes to documents by manipulating those email accounts. Among the files accessed by the attacker were the Criminal Record Processing System (TAJ) and the Wanted Persons File (FPR), the minister detailed in statements to Franceinfo, but the 'full extent of the breach' is still unknown. 'This does not endanger the lives of our citizens,' Nuñez clarified. The cyberattack was claimed in an email sent to users of the old BreachForums website, used to exchange malware and databases, and they provided an email address inviting French authorities to contact them to negotiate the return of the data. In a message signed by 'Indra' and published early Saturday morning, the hacker(s) boasted of successfully compromising the Ministry of the Interior's security by accessing the police files of 16.4 million French citizens. They also claimed to have accessed data from the Directorate-General of Public Finances (DGFIP) and the National Old-Age Insurance Fund (CNAV). They justified their action as retaliation for France's dismantling of the 'ShinyHunters' hacker group a few months ago, but those mentioned have distanced themselves from that action. The young man was arrested this Wednesday on charges of 'attacking an automated data processing system implemented by the state as part of an organized group,' an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
