French national bank authority confirmed a major data breach affecting 1.2 million bank accounts after a malicious actor stole credentials belonging to a government official and used them to access the national bank account file.

The Directorate General of Public Finances detected the intrusion in late January 2026 and immediately restricted access to limit data extraction from FICOBA, the comprehensive database listing every bank account opened in French banking establishments.

The attacker compromised credentials of an official authorized to access FICOBA through interministerial information exchange channels. This legitimate access pathway allowed the threat actor to query the databas...