Covid-19: a computer breach makes the personal data of 700,000 people tested accessible – LCI

LEAK – The names, first names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and e-mail address, as well as the test results of 700,000 people, were available until Friday on the Francetest site.

The drafting of LCI with AFP – 2021-08-31T18: 04: 39.834 + 02: 00

A flaw on a site transmitting the results of Covid tests carried out in pharmacies to the government platform made accessible for several months, the personal data and test results of thousands of people, Mediapart revealed on Tuesday.

The names, surnames, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and email addresses, as well as the test results of 700,000 people were available until Friday thanks to “a password that can be found, in clear, in a file accessible to all” on the Francetest site, writes the information site.

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Francetest is a company founded last January which specializes in the transfer of data from Covid tests carried out in pharmacies to the SI-DEP platform. The screening information system (SI-DEP) is a secure platform where the results of Covid-19 tests are systematically recorded in order to “to ensure that all positive cases are taken care of” and identify contact cases, explains the Ministry of Health on its site.

This platform, “manufactured by the AP-HP (Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris) in emergency in December (…) is not very ergonomic”, explains Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF). Consequently, many pharmacists have resorted to intermediaries to enter the results of the tests carried out in the SI-DEP. Francetest charges one euro per transmission, according to Mediapart.

On Sunday, the Directorate General of Health (DGS) sent an email to pharmacists to remind them of the software approved and compatible with the SI-DEP, of which Francetest is not part.

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“We absolutely need the authorities to provide us with a tool allowing us to transmit the data to the SI-DEP with our business software, which is safe and approved”, he insisted, specifying that even the software authorized by the DGS was not sufficiently secure.

Informed by a “anonymous report”, the CNIL, the French gendarme of personal data, told AFP that it had launched investigations.

LCI writing with AFP

Covid-19: a computer breach makes the personal data of 700,000 people tested accessible – LCI

LEAK – The names, first names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and e-mail address, as well as the test results of 700,000 people, were available until Friday on the Francetest site.

The CNIL opens an investigation

Read also

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