Hacker claims data breach of three French parties

A hacker identified as ChimeraZ claims to have attacked and recovered data from three French political parties during the weekend of October 23 to 25. The French Communist Party (PCF), France Insoumise (LFI), and Renaissance are said to have been affected, though the latter two have denied any new intrusion.

Parties respond to claims of data theft

The French Communist Party (PCF) confirmed it had been alerted by the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) and has taken steps to secure its systems. The party says the leaked data includes member and sympathizer information, such as political opinions, but no banking details. It plans to file a formal complaint.

Details of the leaked data

The hacker claims to have obtained data on 190,000 people, including names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers. However, the victims have not confirmed the exact scope of the breach, making it difficult to assess the true volume of data leaked from the PCF and previous attacks. Hackers often combine data from multiple sources to inflate their claims.

LFI and Renaissance deny data breaches

ChimeraZ claimed to have obtained 1.2 million lines of data from LFI militants and 4.1 million lines from Renaissance. LFI’s coordinator, Manuel Bompard, said the party had verified that no personal data beyond publicly available information had been disclosed. Renaissance’s leadership also denied any breach, stating the data involved were public or accessible via their platform.

Previous leaks and data sources

LFI had previously suffered a data leak in May from its social network, Action populaire. Current reports suggest the data circulating online may include phone numbers and emails of militants, though it is unclear if these come from a single source or are aggregated from multiple leaks. The data includes information related to door-to-door operations for upcoming elections.

Les Républicains website defaced

Unrelated to the data breaches, the website of the party Les Républicains was defaced on October 16. The homepage was altered to display demands for a demonstration and to address insults to party members. The attackers claimed to have recovered internal data, but party members denied this to Le Monde.