A government digital service called Zero logement vacant, linked to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, was taken offline after a cyberattack claim by the ZeroBytes group.

The affected service went inaccessible on Sunday, following ZeroBytes’ claim of a large-scale attack documented by French Breaches.

ZeroBytes allegedly targeted the Zero logement vacant platform, a government site tied to the Ministry of Town Planning and Housing, and claimed to have stolen data from the platform.

French Breaches notes the breach involved about 149 million raw records that could include names, birth dates, addresses, and property-related identifiers, with possible duplicates.

The attacker is said to have accessed data on property owners and users, with files potentially containing duplicates and sensitive personal information such as names, dates of birth, and postal addresses.

French Breaches reports that ZeroBytes allegedly retrieved nearly 149 million raw records from Zero logement vacant, including potentially duplicated entries and various identifiers linked to owners or properties.

The compromised data set is described as including owners and users of the platform, which aims to help local authorities bring vacant housing back onto the market.

The article notes the platform’s role as a government service to assist municipalities in reintroducing vacant homes to the market, warning that the released data could enable misuse given its sensitivity.

The breach at the tax authority (DGFiP) is said to involve at least 678,000 individuals and professionals, with ZeroBytes linked to the mid-year breach, according to French Breaches.

ZeroBytes claimed responsibility for a major tax data breach disclosed in mid-August and also asserted access to millions of records from Zero logement vacant.

The Zero logement vacant breach is described as a follow-up to ZeroBytes’ earlier high-profile theft from the fiscal authorities in late June/July, affecting at least 678,000 people and professionals.

The French Ministry of Finance did not comment on the incident while investigations continued.