Belgium has recently been officially represented in the International Counter Ransomware Task Force (ICRTF), a partnership between 25 countries and Interpol.  This is a new step for our country in the fight against ransomware. Thanks to the ICRTF, forces are joined across borders, knowledge is shared and joint actions are set up.  After all, no single country is able to combat ransomware effectively individually. This international partnership represents a major step forward. The Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) is therefore very pleased to represent Belgium in the ICRTF.

Today is Anti-Ransomware Day, which was created by Europol and Kaspersky to commemorate the fight against WannaCry. But this is no cause for celebration just yet. Indeed, on 12 May 2017, this ransomware broke out and infected more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries. An eye-opener for many governments and companies. Both public, private and public/private collaborations in the fight against ransomware saw the light of day during that period, such as nomoreransom.org, for example.  To this day, however, ransomware remains a major, if not the biggest cyber threat to businesses, organisations and governments.

Ransomware in Belgium

For Belgium, the attacks on the hospital group Vivalia (in the province of Luxembourg) and the City of Antwerp are still fresh in the memory. The CCB receives around 100 reports of ransomware attacks (successful or unsuccessful) every year. This figure probably hides an even larger number of Belgian victims. The impact of a ransomware attack on the victim is often very significant. The company or organisation cannot continue to function, loses crucial information, suffers reputational damage and sees its costs rise sharply.

Cyber resilience before and behind the scenes

The CCB has been warning about the threat of ransomware for years, and thus regularly publishes alerts and security advice for the general population, the business community and governments. Daily, it also sends targeted alerts (spear warnings) to warn potential victims about leaked login data, virus infections or vulnerabilities in their systems. Our partnership in the International Counter Ransomware Task Force is another important step that will enable CCB to provide even faster, more efficient and targeted alerts.