The bill to secure and regulate the digital space features in the highest position an anti-scam cybersecurity filter, to protect consumers against SMS and email fraud.
To strengthen the security of the digital space, the government was able to begin discussions, Wednesday, May 10 in the Council of Ministers, on a bill generally intended to protect the French during their online browsing. Among the twelve major measures associated with the text, we find the creation of an anti-scam filter, which we presented to you at the end of February. The general idea ? Alert consumers when they receive a fraudulent text or email.
An imperative anti-scam filter, faced with the multiplication and professionalization of the threat
A handful of reasons are already enough to justify the interest of such a mechanism. Identity theft, use of personal data for malicious purposes, collection of data using illicit means, illegal penetration into a payment system and others, are all threats against which the text intends to fight.
And for good reason: 50% of French people have already been victims of a fraudulent attempt to access their data. The number of people trapped is such that requests for assistance on the government site cybermalveillance.gouv.fr have jumped 166% in two years, not counting the 60,000 complaints of online scams that have been filed on the Thésée platform, between the months of March and October 2022.
Generally, the scammers proceed as follows: you receive a fake SMS from Health Insurance (or another organization well known to the general public), or an e-mail, which invites you to click on a link, in order to push you to deposit your bank details. So how does the government intend to fight against this scourge?
You will be alerted when you click on a potentially fraudulent link
The Minister Delegate for Digital, Jean-Noël Barrot, sketched it out in February, but the filter must take the form of an alert message displayed by browsers (Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, Edge, Opera, etc. ) or Internet service providers (Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free).
More specifically: when you click on the link we were talking about, which you find in the SMS or email, you will receive a message telling you that the site to which you are redirected is compromised, i.e. say fraudulent or potentially fraudulent.
To facilitate the work of all parties, a database bringing together all the malicious sites identified by the victims and then reported to the administrative authorities will be created. Targeted sites will have 5 days to challenge their malicious site status.
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