On Friday, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior stated that roughly 8,700 French visa applicants’ personal details were exposed during a cyberattack on the France-Visas website. The website receives roughly 1.5 million applications per month, according to the government ministries. The information exposed in the attack includes names, passport and identity card numbers, nationalities, and dates of birth. No extremely sensitive data such as payment card information or bank account details were compromised in the attack, according to the Frech government.

Some cybersecurity professionals in France spoke out about the attack, urging public sector organizations to adopt privacy standards and controls to prevent similar incidents. Ronnen Brunner, VP of EMEA at ExtraHop, took to social media to speak out about the public sector’s responsibility for protecting personal data. It remains unclear what group was responsible for the attack or what the initial attack vector was.