France allocates €200 million for urgent cybersecurity upgrades after major data breach

France has allocated €200 million in emergency funding to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities across government ministries, following a massive data breach at the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS) detected on April 15.

The funding was announced the week of April 27 by Sébastien Lecornu, who called the breach "the heist of the century" and said three data thefts occur per day in France. The money is intended as an emergency measure to measure vulnerabilities and upgrade cybersecurity across ministries.

Minister Delegate for AI and Digital Affairs Anne Le Hénanff, speaking on France Inter on Monday, May 4, said the funds will be used for "flash audits" and to raise protection levels, but acknowledged the sum is insufficient. "Today, cybersecurity budgets in some ministries can be as low as 1% of the IT budget — which is extremely low — up to 5%, which is also not much. We say that to ensure daily cybersecurity and stay at the minimum required level, you need 10% of an IT budget," she said.

Le Hénanff described the current cybersecurity organization as fragmented and "in silos," noting that "systems are not homogeneous, there is disparity from one ministry to another, some are digitized, others less so." France was the second most affected country worldwide by data leaks in the first quarter of 2026.

In response, the prime minister has created a new National Authority for Digital and AI, merging several agencies, under his direct control at Matignon. Le Hénanff said this will allow the government to "continue modernizing the state" and "raise the level of cybersecurity and protection of information systems and French people's data."