A June intrusion at France’s tax authority exposed names, addresses, and income data for hundreds of thousands of people, including thousands of high earners, in Europe’s wrench-attack hotspot.
French Tax Agency Breach Exposes About 678,000 Taxpayers in the Country With the Most Violent Crypto Attacks
Posted August 17, 2026 at 6:51 am EST.
Hackers viewed and extracted personal and tax records from France’s Directorate General of Public Finances after breaking in between June and July, the agency confirmed last Thursday. The intrusion followed the theft of the identifiers of a DGFIP agent and unauthorized third-party.
The breach impacted 678,000 individuals, the agency said. That is roughly 1% of France’s population. The stolen data include reference tax income family quotient and withholding tax rate, according to the DGFIP, though multiple media reports suggest it also includes names, emails, phone numbers and home addresses. Nearly 27,000 of those exposed declared income of at least €100,000, 386 reported more than €1 million, and eight reported more than €10 million. The database is reportedly being sold on dark web marketplaces.
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The breach comes as France has become the world’s most active market for wrench attacks. Chainalysis recorded 30 publicly known violent crypto attacks in the country in the first half of 2026, with more than $30 million taken, putting the year on pace to pass 2025’s record $58 million.
Bitcoin security researcher Jameson Lopp, who has maintained a public database of physical attacks on crypto holders, said on X that the leak was another blow to bitcoin holders in the country where these attacks are most common.
The exposure compounds a separate leak disclosed the same week. Trezor disclosed on Wednesday that a breach at its shipping provider ShipMonk exposed data on nearly 14,000 customers, including the phone numbers and addresses of 11,742 people, effectively a verified list of hardware wallet buyers with delivery addresses attached.
Related Listen: I Went Undercover to Interview a North Korean Crypto Hacker
AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.
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