France Travail data breach exposes details of over 62,000 agents
A hacker put data on more than 62,000 France Travail employees up for sale on a cybercriminal forum, the French employment agency said, as it investigates the breach.
France Travail, France's public employment agency, said it was carrying out checks after a hacker put personal data on more than 62,000 of its agents up for sale on a cybercriminal forum, data-leak monitoring site French Breaches reported. The data, in a file of 62,848 rows, was advertised on Tuesday 6 October by a user going by the pseudonym "OxRune", according to French Breaches, cited by Actu.fr and Sud Ouest.
The file is reported to contain more than 100,738 landline and mobile phone numbers linked to over 62,000 agents across 25 regional and organisational entities, including Île-de-France, Brittany, Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, French Breaches said. The stolen data includes names, professional email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, work locations and "several internal identifiers", the site said.
"France Travail is currently carrying out the necessary checks following a claim published on the dark web," the agency said in a written statement to the AFP news agency. It said the intrusion appeared to have taken place the previous week through an employee's Microsoft account, and that the access was detected and blocked a few days after the data was taken. "We will keep you informed as soon as more precise details can be shared," it added.
It is the third cyberattack reported against France Travail in just over two years. The agency said in late July 2026 that it had been targeted in an attack that risked exposing personal data on about 340,000 jobseekers, and it suffered a larger breach in early 2024 that risked exposing data on up to 43 million people.
What we know
- A hacker put data on more than 62,000 France Travail agents, in a file of 62,848 rows, up for sale on a cybercriminal forum, French Breaches reported.
- The file reportedly contains over 100,738 phone numbers and data from 25 regional and organisational entities, including Île-de-France and Brittany.
- France Travail said the intrusion took place last week via an employee's Microsoft account and was detected and blocked a few days after the data was taken.
- It is the agency's third reported breach: one in July 2026 risked data on 340,000 jobseekers, and one in early 2024 risked data on up to 43 million people.
Why it matters for Europe
France Travail has now reported three separate cyberattacks on its systems in just over two years, each exposing personal data held by a state employment agency. The latest breach adds to a run of attacks that have repeatedly compromised data held by French public services this year.
Sources
Reported by 2 reports from 2 independent outlets in 2 countries.
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Questions and answers
- How many France Travail agents were affected?
- Data on more than 62,000 agents, in a file of 62,848 rows, was put up for sale on a cybercriminal forum, French Breaches reported.
- How did the breach happen?
- France Travail said the intrusion occurred last week through an employee's Microsoft account and was detected and blocked a few days after the data was taken.
- Has France Travail been hacked before?
- Yes. It reported an attack in July 2026 that risked data on 340,000 jobseekers, and a larger breach in early 2024 that risked data on up to 43 million people.
This article was written with AI assistance from 2 verified reports and checked under the ECTV editorial policy. Spotted an error? Request a correction.