We knew the 15 to call the Samu, the 17 to contact the police and the 18 for the firefighters. Now for 17Cyber. To deal with the explosion of cyber threats, the government launched its own assistance system at the end of 2024 for victims of cyber attacks and digital malicious acts.
17Cyber is not a telephone switchboard, it is an emergency platform. You can access it at 17Cyber.gouv.fr. It’s a bit like the computer version of the 17 emergency police for hacking. The idea is to centralize help for victims of online crimes who could until now turn to several reporting platforms depending on their situation. The site is aimed at individuals as well as businesses, administrations and communities.
The 17Cyber is open seven days a week and 24 hours a day. It takes the form of a questionnaire. The site first offers the Internet user the opportunity to diagnose their situation. He will ask what the nature of the problem is: does it concern a message, an online account, the telephone or a computer for example. Around fifty recurring scenarios have been identified, from banking scams to phishing, including data leaks, cyberharassment and identity theft. More will be added in the coming months.
Depending on the issues, the Internet user will be invited to resolve the incident by simply following the personalized advice provided to them. 17Cyber explains for each case the reality of the risks involved, the steps to be taken urgently and the evidence that must be preserved. Faced with ransomware, for example, the site will advise disconnecting the blocked machine from the network, immediately alerting the IT department and not paying a ransom. 17Cyber will also direct the victim to the right contact to make a report to the authorities : the Pharos platform in the event of illicit content, Perceval for bank fraud or Theseus for online scams.
Finally, if the need arises, 17Cyber will allow you to contact a technical service providerto implement post-incident measures. For the most damaging cases, the site will also offer the possibility of starting a conversation with a police officer or a specialized gendarme to be guided until filing a complaint. The platform will then have the advantage of directly transmitting the information provided in the online chat to facilitate processing of the file at the police station. Nearly 80 agents are mobilized in real time to assist victims. They will be joined by around forty additional gendarmes in 2025. The authorities now hope that 17CYBER will become a reflex for Internet users and will increase the number of legal actions against cybercriminals.
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Find (the inimitable) “Golden Rule” podcast every week… and from now on its Digital counterpart dedicated to everyday problems online. How to browse the Internet safely? What settings should you configure to protect your personal data? How to spot online scams before falling for them… Benjamin Hue, journalist at RTL, answers here the questions you ask yourself every day about new technologies.
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