Personal info of 10 million job seekers in France stolen by hackers after third-party data breach

French government-run unemployment registration agency Pôle emploi has confirmed a data breach that exposed the personally identifiable information of about 10 million people.

According to a press release on the Pôle emploi website, the breach stemmed from one of its service providers that fell victim to the MOVEit hack in late May 2023.

"Pôle emploi became aware of the violation of the information system of one of its providers involving a risk of disclosure of personal data of job seekers," the agency said.

Jobseekers who registered on the Pôle emploi website in February of 2022 and former users of the platform are impacted by the incident. Full names and social security numbers of users were exposed.

Email addresses, phone numbers, passwords and bank details were not affected by the breach.

Pôleemploi said it has notified the French data protection authority (CNIL) and filed a complaint to judicial authorities on Aug. 23.

While the security incident did not directly impact the Pôle emploi website or its information systems, the agency urges job seekers to watch out for social engineering schemes and fraud.

The unemployment agency said it will send out formal data breach notifications to each impacted individual and provide a dedicated support line which can be reached via 39 49.

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