France Launches REACTIV Cyber Incident Response Unit for Government Services

France is strengthening its public-sector cyber defences with REACTIV, a new cyber incident response unit within ANSSI designed to help government ministries protect sensitive data and coordinate action during major attacks.

France strengthens cyber incident response for state services

France’s national cybersecurity agency, the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) , is establishing a dedicated cyber incident response capability to support government services during serious attacks.

Known as Interministerial Response & Action against Data Breaches — Réponse & Action Interministérielle face aux Violations de données , or REACTIV —the initiative is intended to strengthen ANSSI’s authority and ensure that the agency can quickly deploy the expertise and resources required alongside affected ministries. ANSSI outlined the mechanism in its statement published on September 7 .

What powers will REACTIV give ANSSI?

The new cyber incident response unit introduces two specific responsibilities for ANSSI:

ANSSI will be able to require ministries, within strict deadlines, to take immediate steps to protect citizens’ data held by government administrations.

The agency will lead centralized technical crisis communications when a cyberattack threatens state services.

Despite the announcement, the government has not yet disclosed the staffing or financial resources assigned to REACTIV. That lack of detail has led some observers to question whether the initiative will have sufficient authority and capacity to meet its objectives. Critics have also expressed doubts whether it will have the necessary “teeth” to deliver on its ambitions .

The initiative follows a major tax authority breach

The creation of REACTIV comes several weeks after France’s Directorate-General for Public Finance, the country’s national tax authority, suffered a major cyberattack. The incident exposed sensitive and personal information belonging to between 350,000 and 678,000 taxpayers.

Following the breach, the French Prime Minister called for an extensive audit of ANSSI and requested the creation of a new incident response unit within the agency.

Authorities arrested two people, aged 16 and 18, at the end of August on suspicion of involvement in the attack. The pair are alleged to have participated as members of the “ZeroBytes” hacking group. Their arrests were reported by Franceinfo .

Image credits: Victor Velter / Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information / Skorzewiak / Shutterstock.com

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