An investigation was opened in Paris into the cyberattack which affected the personal data of around 550,000 customers of the northern distributor Auchan, the Paris prosecutor's office told AFP this Friday, November 29.
The capital's public prosecutor indicated that its Lille counterpart had relinquished this case on Thursday in favor of its national anti-cybercrime section.
According to the prosecution, “around 550,000 Auchan customer accounts were hacked, and their personal data (last name, first name, loyalty card information) distributed on forums”.
“The investigation into breaches of an automated data processing system was entrusted to the Anti-Cybercrime Office,” said the prosecution.
A spokesperson announced to AFP on November 19 that Auchan had been “the victim of a cyberattack” targeting “part of the personal data” of more than 500,000 customers “associated with a loyalty account”.
This data concerns “the last name, first name, email address, postal address, telephone number, family composition if provided, date of birth, loyalty card number and the amount of the prize pool loyalty”, detailed this spokesperson.
On the other hand, “banking data, passwords and PIN codes for loyalty cards are not affected”, she assured, specifying that the incident had been “contained” and “vigilance reinforced”.
“All necessary measures were taken immediately to put an end to this attack and strengthen the protection of our information systems,” Auchan said in an email to its customers.
The company, which presented to its staff representatives on November 5 a draft social plan threatening a total of 2,389 jobs in France, in this email invited its customers “to exercise the greatest vigilance at the risk of emails, SMS or calls fraudulent”.
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