Belgium’s parliament, scientific institutions, police services, and universities have all been targeted in a concerted cyberattack.
On Tuesday, Internet service provider Belnet, which serves the country’s government agencies, was hit by a “large-scale attack,”
The organisation was struck by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack at around 11:00 a.m. CEST, which overloaded its servers and prevented online services from being available. Websites with .be extension were affected.
Around 200 Belnet customers lost internet access as a result of the hack, either partially or completely. VRT, a news agency, was one of the victims of the cyberattack.
Belnet said in an update on Wednesday morning “The attack is still in progress and takes place in successive waves,”
“Our teams are working hard to mitigate them. We are constantly monitoring our network to counter any new attempts.”
During the attack, no data was stolen or exfiltrated, and no personal information was compromised, according to Belnet.
Some websites, such as the official site of the City of Brussels, are still unavailable, while others, such as the Brussels Police website, are back online.
The cyberattack interrupted the Belgian parliament’s working, forcing many meetings to be rescheduled. Unstable connections hampered distance learning at several universities and colleges.