Hacker accesses info on 1.2M French bank accounts — ministry

PARIS, France - The French economy ministry said Wednesday that a hacker gained access to a national bank account database and consulted information on 1.2 million accounts.

Since the end of January, the hacker used the stolen credentials of an official to access and consult "parts of the file of all of the accounts open in French banks and which contains personal data such as bank account numbers, name of the account holder, address and in certain cases the account owner's tax number," the ministry said in a statement.

The Direction General of Public Finances told AFP that gaining access to the database "doesn't allow you to check bank account balances, let alone conduct operations."

The ministry said that once the unauthorized access was detected measures were immediately taken to block the hacker and prevent the removal of information.

Owners of the 1.2 million affected bank accounts will receive notifications in coming days, it added. It said a criminal complaint had been filed and the CNIL data protection watchdog informed. — Agence France-Presse