Leak at French Fencing Federation

On 23 January 2026, the French Fencing Federation (Fédération Française d'Escrime, FFE) — the national governing body for fencing in France — was reported to have had its licensee database exposed. The leak surfaced during a six-week wave of cyberattacks that hit more than 30 French sports federations across January and early February 2026.

The compromise stemmed from a shared third-party provider that hosts licence-management and administrative portals for multiple federations. A single vulnerability at that provider let an attacker reach the underlying member databases, which is why so many federations were breached in quick succession. The stolen records were subsequently advertised for sale on criminal forums, with the broader trove across the affected federations totalling several million personal records.

Exposed data for FFE members included:

• First and last name
• Nationality
• Phone number
• Postal address
• Email address
• Licence type
• Club affiliation
• Age category and discipline

The breach was confirmed publicly via the leak's appearance on monitoring trackers, but a precise count of affected FFE licensees has not been reliably established, and the federation's remediation and notification steps remain unconfirmed.