Victims of the Free cyberattack will ultimately not be able to file a complaint online via a form to fill out, as had been announced. On Wednesday October 30, the French policeman of our personal data, the CNIL, specified, in its page relating to the hacking of Free, that an online complaint form would be set up. The approach, spotted by RTLhad one objective: to facilitate the potential filing of complaints by the approximately 20 million Free customers who were victims of the leak.
In this cyberattack, no less than five million IBANs of the operator's customers fell into the hands of cybercriminals, subscriber data having been sold for $175,000 on a forum.
Also read: Free Hack: what to do if your data has been hacked?
The form “is no longer relevant since last week”
As a result, the CNIL further specified, last week, that “ If you have been informed of the violation of your data, following the cyberattack targeting the telephone operator Free, you have the possibility of filing a complaint via an online form without going to a police station or gendarmerie brigade. This form will soon be available from the website cybermalveillance.gouv.fr ».
But a few days later, there was a twist. The mention of the online form, on the page dedicated to the CNIL's Free piracy, finally disappeared, without any form being put online. Contacted by 01net.com Monday, November 4, the CNIL had not responded to our requests at the time of publication of this article. The cybermalveillance.gouv.fr site that we questioned, for its part, confirmed that the online form “ was no longer relevant since last week “. Why this backpedaling? Were the authorities afraid of being overwhelmed by too many complaints?
The form had, however, “enjoyed a small success” with victims during other cyberattacks
No explanation has yet been given. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr reminded us that the site was only a host who neither decided nor managed the question of the form. We contacted the police headquarters who referred us to the public prosecutor's office which, for its part, had not responded to our request at the time of publication of this article.
Such a form, called a “complaint letter”, had, however, in other cases of cyberattacks, “ achieved a small success ”, we are told. It was notably put in place after the cyberattack affecting third-party payment providers Viamedis and Almerys last February. The process, managed by the Cybercrime Brigade – also responsible for the investigation into the hacking of Free – made it possible to file a complaint in almost three minutes. All without having to go to a police station or gendarmerie, via the State website “demarches-simplifies.fr”.
But for the massive cyberattack targeting Free, it will be necessary, if you are one of the victims, and you wish to initiate legal action:
- or file a complaint against Free before the CNIL, if you consider that the operator has not sufficiently protected your personal data. The procedure is described on the website of the personal data policeman: it will involve first going through an exchange with the Free operator and its DPO, its data protection delegate;
- either go to a police station or gendarmerie in the event of fraudulent use of your personal data leading to “ identity theft, scam or fraudulent payments », Explains the CNIL.
Alongside or in parallel with filing a possible complaint, do not hesitate, if you are one of the victims of the leak, to adopt these vigilance measures described in our article.
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