French agent accused of peddling state secrets on dark web for crypto

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A security officer in France is accused of selling confidential state information on the dark net, according to local media reports.

On Friday, French news outlet Le Parisien described the officer as a member of a sensitive division of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (DGSI). The agent allegedly minted information to which he had access to, as well as potentially falsified administrative documents, which he sold on the dark web.

Sources close to the investigation told the news outlet there was evidence that the agent had been in contact with members of the organized crime world as well as “specialists of the economic intelligence” who were interested in obtaining such data. No link to terrorism has been found, according to the report.

Agents from the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police were the first to discover the leaks. This prompted the DGSI to use the agent’s personal code—which they use to connect to computers and perform consultations—to track his online activities. Internal security processes allow the authorities to trace the origin of file queries either in real time or in delayed manner.

Following the agent’s arrest, L’Office central pour la répression de l’immigration irrégulière et de l’emploi d’étrangers sans titre (Ocriest)—the agency in charge of monitoring “irregular immigration”—shut down the criminal network the suspect had been linked to, according to Le Monde.

It is not yet known how much information was sold or how much crypto the agent received. Data considered classified as “confidential defense” or “secret defense” within the DGSI, are punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of €100,000 ($115,393) if violated by any state agent.