France President Emmanuel Macron COVID-19 passport QR code leaked on social media; suspect arrested

A representative of the French authorities revealed that the health employees who would have been responsible for leaking some confidential details of President Emmanuel Macron, including his COVID-19 vaccination status, have already been identified.

As some users will recall, in recent days some personal records of President Macron were leaked on social networks, including documents showing his full name and date of birth.

Among the confidential information compromised was the president’s “health pass,” a document confirming that people have already taken any of the coronavirus vaccines applied by the French government. This document includes a QR code that works as a COVID-19 case monitoring tool and its use allows access to spaces such as offices, restaurants, theaters and others.

After the leak, an anonymous employee of France’s presidency confirmed that the health pass was authentic. It is important to mention that all health professionals have access to the systems that store this information as part of the work of citizen attention during the pandemic.

Weeks ago, a similar incident affected Prime Minister Jean Castex, although this happened due to an oversight while the politician appeared before the media.

The representative of CNAM, the national health agency in France, mentioned that the health workers who intentionally leaked their vaccination pass have already been identified and will face administrative sanctions and a potential judicial process.

Health authorities confirmed that both Macron and Castex received new QR codes for their respective health passes in order to prevent any attempted malicious use of this information.

To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.