Cybercrime: with the LOPMI law, the government wants to take a step against ransomware

The new digital transformation bill of the Ministry of the Interior gives pride of place to the fight against cybercrime, with in particular, in the line of sight, that carried out against ransomware
and the birth of the Ma Sécurité application.

Intended for the 2022-2027 period, the Interior Ministry Orientation and Programming Bill (LOPMI) was presented a few days ago by the government, with the main challenge of providing the portfolio with new resources. human, legal and budgetary, all while addressing the revolutionary digital shift as it should, to better manage and anticipate future crises.

Cybersecurity in the spotlight, with the idea of ​​pushing ransomware victims to file a complaint in the event of payment

Among the measures mentioned in the bill, several relate to digital, and first of all, in a more general point around the digital transformation of the Ministry of the Interior, it is a question of the fight against cybercrime. The basic idea is simple: the State wishes to create the digital equivalent of “call 17″, so that ” everyone can report a cyber attack and be immediately put in touch with a specialized operator “.

Behind this flagship measure, we find another key point of the law, which consists in offering investigators (the famous cyber-patrolmen, the bill mentions 1,500 recruitments and deployments) the means that could help them put the cybercriminals out of harm’s way. The State thus wants to make it compulsory to report to the authorities the payment of a ransom in the cyber sense of the term, therefore implying ransomware. In other words, filing a complaint would become an obligation for any company or structure that agrees to give in to ransomware’s blackmail. Similarly, the bill advocates seizing criminal assets held in the form of cryptocurrencies.

To go even further in the fight against computer crime, the law proposes the creation of a cybersecurity training school of the Ministry of the Interior, and to make all companies aware of the risks of cybercrime. Faced with cyber-delinquency which increases by 10 to 20% each year, it would be a lesser evil.

By extension, if the LOPMI law, which is just beginning its process between the two assemblies, is adopted, it will allow the recruitment of 300 civil servants and high-level contractors to implement the digital projects essential to the ministry, which therefore concerns the cybersecurity but not only. The project also mentions the creation of a real digital agency for the security forces.

The “Ma Sécurité” application, the all-in-one security application available to French people

The law also refers to the significant increase in security and emergency forces equipped with equipment such as pedestrian cameras (53,000 are to be deployed by the summer), cameras on board vehicles and digital terminals and mobile stations, which provide direct access to all the resources needed for security and law enforcement missions from the field. The law also mentions the modernization and pooling of communication infrastructures. This would involve the deployment of the “radio network of the future”, a network common to all security and emergency forces, like the NexSIS project, which would help to pool the management of fire and emergency services alerts.

The last big part of this bill which seems to us to be interesting, Clubic, the My Security application is launched. Available for download and free of charge on Android and iOS since March 7, it offers all French people the possibility of being assisted by a police officer or a gendarme, at any time of the day. On this application, we find in particular:

• online reporting and pre-complaint services,
• all emergency numbers,
• access to online administrative procedures platforms,
• local security notifications and news,
• a chat available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a member of the police,
• prevention and safety advice,
• a map of reception points, police stations and other places that can help the public, with their respective contact details and opening hours,
• and a deal point reporting platform, which launched in early 2021, has already generated 10,000 reports.

The bill also proposes the deployment of new NEO 2 digital equipment (mobile phones) for gendarmes and police officers, with the delivery of 240,000 new NEO 2 terminals by summer 2022. The platform for the harmonized processing of investigations and reports for e-scams (THESEE), which has been in the experimental phase since last October, is now available in beta version. It allows users to file a complaint online without having to go to a police station or a gendarmerie brigade.

Finally, the project highlights the “Visioplainte” service, launched in mid-November 2021 by the Ministry of the Interior, and which is currently being created within the National Police. This system will be accessible to all French people who connect via France Connect from the end of 2022, to file a complaint by videoconference.