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France fines telcos €42M for issues leading to 2024 breach
CNIL fined Free and Free Mobile €42 million for GDPR breaches after a data attack exposed personal details of over 24 million customers, including financial data.
- CNIL issued a €42 million fine to two French telecom companies for GDPR violations, splitting penalties as €27 million and €15 million based on Iliad's 2024 turnover and profit.
- The breach began on September 28, 2024, and the attacker started exfiltrating records on October 6, 2024; companies were notified by a message from the attacker on October 21, 2024, and Free ousted the intruder the following day.
- A post-mortem showed MOBO enabled access to 24,633,469 fixed and mobile contract records, including 19,460,891 Free Mobile contacts and 5,172,577 Free contracts.
- CNIL highlighted weaknesses in VPN authentication and abnormal‑behaviour detection, finding three GDPR breaches: inadequate data security, poor communication to affected users, and non-compliant retention.
- Iliad Group's Free Mobile, with around 15.5 million subscribers, and Free, with approximately 7.6 million, are separate businesses facing wide consumer impact and regulatory scrutiny.
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The EUR 42 million fine imposed by the Cnil (National Commission on Informatics and Freedoms), denounced by the Internet operator and provider, is also intended to encourage other companies to increase their security.
·Paris, France
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A 16-year-old minor, suspected of being the author of the piracy, had been charged in January 2025.
Sentenced to €42 million in fines by Cnil for data theft, Free denounced this decision and announced its willingness to file an appeal with the Conseil d'Etat.
This data theft involved 24 million contracts at Free mobile and Free in October 2024. The reason for this was a security flaw that allowed a computer hacker of only 16 years to enter the system...
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Total News Sources22
Leaning Left3Leaning Right2Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution38% Left, 37% Center
Bias Distribution
- 38% of the sources lean Left, 37% of the sources are Center
38% Left
L 38%
C 37%
R 25%
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