Several websites of Belgian institutions (such as those of the Royal Palace, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the Senate) experienced some disruption late Thursday afternoon.

 

This was due to a DDoS cyber attack ("distributed denial of service", in which servers are flooded with requests to render them unusable) targeting the websites of Belgian government departments. This type of attack is well known and the Belgian services were already aware of an imminent attack by late morning. Thanks to good cooperation between all parties involved in protecting our country's IT infrastructure, the consequences of this attack could be limited.

 

By the evening, the situation had returned to normal for all services involved. It is difficult to trace the origin of this attack. A "NoName" group announced the attack, but it remains anonymous. We notice that countries supporting Ukraine are being targeted. Not just Belgium but all countries. The Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) continues to constantly monitor cybercriminal groups and their strategies to respond as effectively as possible in cooperation with its national and international partners.