A harmonization of the addresses of major government sites will be implemented in the years to come.
For fraudsters, nothing beats counterfeiting large, legitimate institutions to mislead Internet users and rob them. In these operations, hackers target both large private entities like Telegram or WhatsApp as well as government interfaces. So, to deal with it in the best possible way, France will bring change.
The government wants to fight against fraud
To be sure of the security of a website, “https” no longer seems to be enough. In order to ensure that in the future, citizens are indeed on a government site, and not on a copy set up by pirates, the domain name “.gouv.fr” will be extended to many interfaces today equipped with the simple “.fr”.
A circular just published, dated July 7 and signed by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, indicates that “ the .gouv.fr domain name extension must be carried out before 1er July 2025 for communication sites and before 1er January 2026 for procedure sites “.
The objective is to ” fight against online scams or misinformation by offering a distinctive character in the URL of the site consulted by users, and guarantee the official and authentic character of public services. »
75 priorities in sight
The government has already drawn up a list of 75 priority sites that currently have a “.fr” URL, including some that have already made headlines in the past, such as Parcoursup. Each ministry thus had to, on the 1er September, appoint a “design manager” whose role will be to apply the directives issued in the circular.
Since 1995, the “.gouv.fr” extension can only be assigned to government sites. It had already been in place for many years for the most important sites, such as those of the sovereign ministries of the Interior and Defence, or important ministries such as that of the Economy. Surprisingly, the Élysée website is still in “.fr”.
Source : 20 minutes
9