Personal data of 370,000 pensioners stolen from the National Old Age Insurance Fund and put up for sale on the Internet

The French pension insurance company had data on 370,000 people stolen via an internet portal intended for social welfare providers for retirees, it said in a press release.

“Personal data (address, social security number, approximate amount of resources) relating to approximately 370,000 beneficiaries have been compromised”, the National Old Age Insurance Fund (CNAV) said.

“Most of this data is old: some of the people concerned are deceased, for example”, it said.

“No banking data, no data relating to payment, retirement, career or benefits paid have been compromised”, she added.

Account takeovers

The data was stolen via account takeovers of providers using the portal. This one, called the Social Action Partners Portal, was taken out of service by the Cnav, which "apologizes to the people affected by the accident".

According to a forum specializing in the resale of data resulting from the hacking, consulted by AFP, the data stolen from the Cnav was available for sale on an account that also offered data stolen from the Truffaut, Cultura and Boulanger stores.

According to the Cnav, the incident was reported to the Cnil (National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties, and the people concerned “will be informed”. “A complaint has been filed in parallel”, she said.