French Tax Hack: 16-Year-Old 'Casquette' Charged in ZeroBytes Case

A second suspect has been charged in the investigation into the cyberattack on France's tax authority, the DGFiP. The 16-year-old, known online as « Casquette », was 15 at the time of the attack. He has been charged in Paris and placed under judicial supervision.

He is suspected of belonging to ZeroBytes, a hacking group that presents itself as a duo and claimed the theft of data on at least 678,000 taxpayers from tax systems this summer. The charges include fraudulent extraction of data from an automated personal data processing system operated by the State, as part of an organised group.

The defence contests the charge

The teenager's lawyer, Réda Ghilaci, strongly disputes the charge and stresses that his client is presumed innocent. The defence calls the indictment « particularly fragile » and says it will be challenged in the coming days.

A group behind several attacks

According to the Paris prosecutor's office, ZeroBytes is also linked to attacks on France Travail, the French Handball Federation, Intermarché and SFR. The group was also active against the Education ministry, notably the Créteil school district, and claims the hack of the Zéro Logement Vacant platform.

This is the second charge in the case. Last month, an 18-year-old nicknamed « ChatNoir » was charged and placed in pretrial detention. Casquette was already known to investigators: he was arrested and released in early September in an older hacking case targeting Epsilon, described as ZeroBytes' predecessor.

How the intrusion happened

The attackers used several dozen DGFiP staff credentials, probably stolen by spyware. According to the national cybersecurity agency ANSSI, the attack exploited known « weaknesses », such as the lack of two-factor authentication. The data of at least 678,000 individuals and businesses was taken.

The data protection authority CNIL has announced an inspection of the tax administration in order to « draw all the consequences » from the breach.