PARIS (Reuters) - The French government signed on Thursday a three-year cybersecurity pact with eight of the country’s leading companies, as major world nations step up security arrangements in the wake of recent high-profile hacking incidents.

The French government said it had signed the agreement - for which no financial details were disclosed - with Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Thales, Safran, Ariane group, MBDA, Naval Group and Nexter.