After the theft of the health data of 33 million French people, 217,000 identity thefts have already been recorded, crazy figures!

As could be feared, the hacking of Social Security third-party payment operators Viamedis and Almerys is already having consequences. Tens of thousands of identity thefts have been reported.

France is experiencing a particularly devastating start to 2024 in terms of cybersecurity. The 33 million citizens affected by the personal data breach of third-party payment providers Viamedis and Almerys can attest to this. Scammers and hackers, who have gotten their hands on a lot of information, such as Social Security numbers, have unsurprisingly started to exploit the stolen data. As France Verif tells us, identity theft has since increased in a worrying manner.

217,000 usurpations out of 33 million potential: this is just the beginning

As of February 16, the data breach monitoring tool reported 96,000 thefts. In other words, hackers had already taken action, and scammers had already taken the information of many affected people, then exploited it to engage in various misdeeds, while stealing the victims’ identities.

Unfortunately, it was only the beginning. At each stage point, the toll grows: 124,000 usurpations on February 22, 164,000 on February 23 and, on February 26, France Verif recorded 217,000 usurpations. “ And we’re only selling the data of about 300,000 people…there are still 32.7 million people whose data hasn’t been sold yet », Explains the organization.

Because in fact, the auctions are still in progress on the dark web and the hackers who orchestrated the leak are still looking for buyers. There will be no miracle and the toll will only increase in the coming weeks. Especially since the pirates have in their hands the surname, first name(s), date of birth, order of birth, Social Security number, name of the health insurer and contract number of the insurer of the 33 million French people affected by the leak.

Although it is appropriate to delay, the risk of identity theft is indeed real

So obviously, it is important to delay and say that unfortunately (again), millions of French people have already seen their data leaked onto malicious networks in recent years. And the data captured alone may not be enough to take action. Scammers often have to supplement them with other information, whether on social networks or more obscure ones. Some are or have already been exhibited. Others will be there for the first time.

However, if we think that the theft of data such as the social security number is, a priori, without risk, “ this number is much more valuable than a credit card number, because it is the royal road to carrying out the worst cybercriminal attack: identity theft », recalls France Verif. It also provides various information about its holder, such as gender, year, month and department of birth or even the municipality code.

The Social Security number can provide access to certain administrative services, including the Health Insurance website, Ameli, or the tax website. By combining the information with that already collected on the dark web, a hacker could very easily usurp the identity of a victim of the leak. So it’s best to exercise extreme caution soon, change your passwords and enable two-factor authentication wherever you can.