Cyberattack on French interior ministry’s email servers compromised more than 20 files

PARIS, Dec 17 (Reuters) – A cyberattack that hit the French interior ministry’s email servers last week compromised at least a few dozen files, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Wednesday, adding that the incident was more serious than initially thought.

Nunez had said on December 12 that there was no evidence to suggest the servers had been seriously compromised.

“It’s serious,” he told Franceinfo radio on Wednesday.

“A few days ago, I said that we didn’t know whether there had been any compromises or not. Now we know that there have been compromises, but we don’t know the extent of them.”

The compromised files included criminal records.

There was no indication yet who carried out the attack.

Nunez said a judicial probe and administrative investigation were underway, and the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has been notified.

“I can tell you that there have not been millions of pieces of data extracted as of this morning (…), but I remain very cautious about the level of compromise,” he added.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch RasmussenEditing by Dominique Vidalon and Frances Kerry)