The recent security incident at the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS) in France is something that everyone has probably heard about.
On April 20, the French Ministry of the Interior said that the website of the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS), which is in charge of issuing ID cards, passports, and driver’s licenses, was hit by a cyberattack on April 15. This attack resulted in a lot of data being leaked.
The leaked data includes things like login IDs, names, email addresses, and dates of birth. Some people may also have had their mailing addresses, places of birth, and phone numbers leaked. You can find information about this incident on the France Titre
Data breaches happen all the time. Digital protection has some hidden weaknesses.
It is not the case of ANTS in France. According to some data, there were over 72,000 data breaches in 2025 affecting as many as 5.5 billion accounts. You can find information about this on the website https://exposedmap.com/report/2025.
These breaches include not only government systems, but also luxury brands and genetic data platforms. A lot of data has been used in the wrong way, which has had some very bad consequences.
Now companies are focusing on keeping information safe, but not everyone is using the latest protective systems. At the time, hackers are getting better at what they do. Just having digital protection is no longer enough to deal with the world.
Digitalization Brings Advantages — But Also Limitations
In today’s age, digital information security management is very important and is a key part of identity management. It makes our lives and work much easier.
Modern digital technologies provide protection for systems. Things like encrypting data, secure authentication and real-time monitoring help prevent access. Protect sensitive information.
When digital systems are our line of defense for identity protection, physical identity documents often become our last line of defense. This is why countries around the world are still working to improve the security technology of ID documents – optical physical anti-counterfeiting.
We have talked about this topic before. Mr. Zhang Debing, the sales director of Suzhou Image Technology, also spoke about this topic at the HSP Asia Conference.
You can click to learn more about what he said. Why do we still need physical anti-counterfeiting in the age of electronic identification and Internet verification?
Why is optical physical anti-counterfeiting our ” line of defense”?
IMAGE optical anti-counterfeiting is a physical security technology that creates micro-nano structures by using optical diffraction, reflection, and refraction; some people call it a “hologram”.
Making it requires equipment and experienced technicians. The process is very complex and almost impossible to copy.
Importantly, optical anti-counterfeiting does not rely on the internet. Is not affected by things like network signals, cyber-attacks, or power outages. In some areas where the internet and power are not well developed, this method of verification is very reliable and convenient.
There is no absolute security; integration is the future.
In today’s world, information security systems are a part of identity management and data protection. However, as counterfeiting techniques and hacker attacks get better, one anti-counterfeiting measure is no longer enough.
The best solution is to combine technologies using the benefits of digitalization and the reliability of optical physical anti-counterfeiting to provide better protection.
We have to admit that no security technology is completely risk-free. A good security system is not one technology but a combination of multiple levels and technologies.
As a company that specializes in micro-nano optical security technology, we believe that the future of safety is a future of integration. When digital systems are under attack, what really protects our identity and trust is not one technology but a complete and coordinated security system, like the National Agency for Secure Documents in France, and optical physical anti-counterfeiting.
