Belgium Hacked, Most Likely by China May 26, 2021 07:37 GMT
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Chinese Hackers
The Belgian Interior Ministry was the victim of a cyberattack in which intruders obtained access to the entire computer system of the ministry. Belgian experts say the attack was most likely launched from China, according to Euractiv.
The attack, which was uncovered by technicians at the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) back in March, was initially launched in April 2019, the statement said.
The attack was kept secret to reveal the system s vulnerability only after it was protected.
The Home Office asked the CCB to investigate the network after Microsoft disclosed problems with Exchange, the email system used by many businesses and organizations. According to Belgian media, the hackers gained access to computer systems by exploiting a flaw in Exchange.
Security Boulevard
Community Chats Webinars Library How a DDoS Attack on an Internet Service Provider Can Paralyze Critical Infrastructure
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
Belgium s parliament, universities, and scientific institutions have been targeted in a coordinated cyberattack.
Belnet, the company that provides internet services to the country s government agencies, said their network was victim of a large-scale attack on Tuesday.
Unknown hackers committed a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack at 11:00 (CEST), Belnet said, designed to prevent the availability of certain online services by overloading servers with data.
Belnet said the attack did not breach or steal any information from the network.
However, the hack meant all of Belnet s customers were either completely or partially cut off from the internet.
Belgian citizens were unable to access the websites of certain administrations on Tuesday and students could not use their university s online services.