The damage amounts to “several thousand euros”. As Capital explains on its site, these are the latest estimates from the Ministry of Economy, Finance, as well as industrial and digital sovereignty. But what exactly are we talking about? In fact, there is talk of a major security flaw that has allowed some hackers to leave with some taxpayers’ money. Public services, it seems, are not immune to such failures either…
In this case, explains the press on the basis of the revelations of the Canard Enchaîné, it is a problem emanating from the FranceConnect platform. It is no longer possible to connect to the tax site from the Ameli account, indicates La Voix du Nord. “Following technical maintenance on FranceConnect, access via the Ameli digital identity is suspended until further notice. Access to your particular space is therefore currently impossible if you usually use your Ameli identifiers”, can we also read on the site.
The hackers have implemented an effective scheme. They retrieve the accused from the online taxpayer declaration and then access several of their personal data. This is how they are able to rip off the tax office and recover money that is not owed to them. But to whom was the latter supposed to return? Is it the one that the General Directorate of Public Finance is supposed to recover? Explanations.
The modus operandi of the scammers is effective because it is fundamentally based on impersonating taxpayers. Hackers, once they have the personal data mentioned above, are able to connect to the secure space of the targeted individual and change their password. Once this is done, they are able to modify the bank account details of the latter.
Very concretely, specifies Capital, this means that they collect the overpayments paid by the General Directorate of Public Finances in place of the taxpayers who are really entitled to them.
As things stand, the best option available to affected taxpayers is to report the fraud. Questioned by Le Canard Enchaîné, the Interministerial Digital Directorate indeed evokes an “upsurge in reports passing through FranceConnect”. Moreover, we will have to wait for the reaction of the authorities, who urge taxpayers to send them any questionable messages they may have received about FranceConnect.
These have already begun to take measures to protect the data of French people. The removal of the FranceConnect button from the connection screen on the site of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) is one of them.