‘IT incident’ leaves several government websites linked to France’s Environment Ministry inaccessible
Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Several websites linked to France’s Ministry for Ecological Transition were inaccessible, while a prefecture reported an unspecified IT incident at the ministry.
- The outage affected the environmental public consultation site and regional administration websites, and some Creuse officials faced difficulties receiving email.
- The disruption follows recent tax-data breaches that prompted Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to request a new cyber unit from France’s cybersecurity agency.
Several government websites linked to France’s Ministry for Ecological Transition became inaccessible on Wednesday, with users directed to try again later or told that maintenance was underway.
The affected services included the website for public consultations on environmental issues. The platform allows the public to comment on proposed orders and decrees. Several websites run by regional administrations also displayed maintenance notices.
IT incident at the Ministry for Ecological Transition
The Creuse prefecture described the disruption as an “IT incident at the Ministry for Ecological Transition,” without specifying what happened. It said the departmental directorates for territories, employment, labor, social affairs and population protection were having difficulty being reached, particularly by email, and urged users to call instead.
The ministry did not immediately provide further information when contacted by AFP.
new cyber unit
The outage comes after France recently suffered a large theft of tax data. The Directorate General of Public Finance confirmed two intrusions, occurring in late June and late July, that affected data belonging to at least 678,000 individuals and businesses, as well as about 200,000 accounts in its cadastral files. The stolen personal tax information included names, tax reference income, family quotient and withholding-tax rates.
Following those breaches, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked the National Cybersecurity Agency to create a “new cyber unit” capable of providing a “more responsive operational response” to cyberattacks targeting France.
more responsive operational response
About this summary
Originally published by Le Figaro in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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