City of Antwerp no longer on hacker hit-list

The city of Antwerp is no longer mentioned on the list of hacked organisations by hacker collective Play, which allegedly carried out the cyber attack on city services launched Monday night. IT experts say that this could mean that the captured data is being negotiated or even that a ransom has already been paid.

Monday night, the Flemish city of Antwerp fell victim to a cyber attack that affected several digital services. The city itself has not commented since the cyberattack except to say what citizens' services have been impacted. 

The deadline for paying the ransom was set for Monday. If the ransom has not been paid by this point, the data taken hostage would then be made public.

On Saturday, Antwerp was no longer listed on the website of hacker collective Play, Gazet Van Antwerpen reports. What this means exactly remains unclear. "Either negotiations are in full swing, or the city has paid. I am not involved in the negotiations myself, but I can speak on the matter from my experience as a negotiator," expert Geert Baudewijns of Secutec told VRT.

Meanwhile, it at least appears that online ticket sales for Antwerp museums are available again. These had been down since the cyber attack started last week. Among others, the MAS and Rubenshuis websites allow you to purchase tickets online again. The city would not officially confirm the news for now.

^{#FlandersNewsService | An aerial view of the Belgian city of Antwerp, featuring the MAS Museum (front-centre) and the port of Antwerp © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND}