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The motivation behind Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is often unknown. In some cases it might be cyber-vandalism, causing disruption for disruption’s sake. In other cases it might be down to
hactivism, reaction to a cause or an event. And while DDoS attacks on business enterprises can result in huge commercial losses due to downtime, the reverberations of a DDoS attack are not always purely economic.
This week Belgium was hit by a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack causing disruption to the services of more than 200 organizations in the country including government, parliamentary, healthcare and academic institutions. The large-scale attack, which started on Tuesday May 4, targeted the network of Belgian internet service provider (ISP) BelNet and was still in progress on Wednesday with the attacks
May 5, 2021 Share
The company providing internet services for Belgium’s parliament, government agencies, universities and scientific institutions said Tuesday that its network was under cyberattack, with connections to several customers disrupted.
Belnet said in a statement the attack “is still in progress and takes place in successive waves. Our teams are working hard to mitigate them.” The company has around 200 customers.
Two hours later it said “the effect of the attack seems to be diminishing,” but provided no other details.
Belgian media reported that online services for coronavirus vaccination centers were partly disrupted and that prosecutors’ offices in Brussels had experienced problems.
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A large-scale incident earlier this week against Belnet and other ISPs has sent a wave of internet disruption across numerous Belgian government, scientific and educational institutions.
Belgian ISP Belnet has restored its service after a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack earlier this week that cut off Internet access to numerous government, public, scientific and educational agencies, including Belgium’s Parliament and some law-enforcement agencies.
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Belgium Hit by Massive Cyberattack May 5, 2021 08:15 GMT
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DDoS Massive Attack
Belgium was hit by a major cyberattack on Tuesday, according to Belgian media, affecting many of the country s most important institutions. Its source is still unknown.
The attack was a major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that took down both internal and public-facing networks.
Hackers targeted
, Belgium s government-founded Internet Service Provider that connects national government organizations such as the Parliament, ministries, educational institutions, and research centers. In addition, all the websites hosted on the .be top-level domain were affected.
It is estimated that more than 200 Belgian government agencies have been affected by the attack. Although Belnet claims the situation is currently stabilized, they remain vigilant.
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DougOlenick) • May 5, 2021 Get Permission
The websites of about 200 public and private entities in Belgium were knocked fully or partially offline Tuesday by a distributed denial-of-service attack against the publicly funded internet service provider Belnet.
Belnet says the DDoS attack, which began at 11 a.m. local time Tuesday, affected government, academic and research institutions. The attack struck websites using the .be domain. Victims included the Belgian COVID-19 vaccine sign-up program in the city of Brussels, according to The Brussels Times, which said some affected websites were still down on Wednesday. Our teams have successfully implemented several mitigation rules. The effect of the attack seems to be diminishing, Belnet reported on Tuesday. We are constantly monitoring our network to counter any new attempts.