France Establishes New Government-Focused Cyber Incident Response Unit

The French national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) will be equipped with a new cyber incident response unit dedicated to help state services.

This new mechanism, called Interministerial Response & Action against Data Breaches (Réponse & Action Interministérielle face aux Violations de données, or REACTIV), is designed to strengthen ANSSI's authority by "making it possible to immediately mobilize the skills and resources needed by the Agency alongside the ministries concerned," the Agency said in a statement dated September 7.

In practice, REACTIV grants ANSSI two new prerogatives:

• The ability for the Agency to require ministries, within tight deadlines, to take the immediate measures necessary to protect citizens' data entrusted to government administrations
• The establishment of centralized technical crisis communication led by ANSSI in the event of an attack that threatens state services

However, the human and financial resources allocated to REACTIV have not yet been disclosed, leaving some observers skeptical about whether the initiative will have the necessary teeth to deliver on its ambitions.

The announcement comes a few weeks after the Directorate-General for Public Finance (DGFiP), France’s national tax authority, was hit by a major cyber-attack that exposed sensitive and personal data of between 350,000 and 678,000 taxpayers.

The incident prompted French Prime Minister to request an “extensive audit” of ANSSI and the creation of a new incident response unit with the Agency.

Two individuals, aged 16 and 18, were arrested at the end of August on suspicion of participating in the hack as members of the “ZeroBytes” hacking group.

Image credits: Victor Velter / Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information / Skorzewiak / Shutterstock.com