Pro-Russian hackers targeted Belgian government institutions ahead of European summit
The pro-Russian hacker group DDoSia carried out a wave of cyber attacks against Belgian government institutions around the time of the European summit, cybersecurity company Secutec reported on Friday. None of the nearly 1,250 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks were successful.
According to Secutec, which monitors critical infrastructure in Belgium for the country's Cybersecurity Centre, the hackers targeted the websites of the federal parliament 40 times, the province of Limburg 45 times and the province of Antwerp 32 times. Nuclear and energy companies were also targeted.
"In November the focus was mainly on local and provincial governments, while in December it shifted to federal institutions and critical infrastructure," said Geert Baudewijns, chief executive of Secutec. The aim was clearly to disrupt essential services in Belgium in order to maximise national impact, he added.
1,249 attacks in December
Between 2 and 18 December, Secutec recorded 1,249 attacks, an increase of more than 190 per cent compared with the previous month. Around two thirds of the attacks targeted government bodies. Healthcare organisations and other critical infrastructure, including Brussels energy company Sibelga and nuclear supplier ASCO Industries, were also major targets.
Secutec warned of a dangerous escalation, with attacks increasingly extending from public authorities to the energy and nuclear sectors. DDoSia is known for targeting NATO member states and countries that strongly support Ukraine.
"DDoSia has demonstrated its ability to identify and attack our most critical dependencies, from energy distribution linked to NATO headquarters to nuclear supply chains that account for up to 50 per cent of our electricity production," Baudewijns said.
Belgium has been the target of cyber attacks several times in 2025. Most of them are Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, where hackers flood a website with massive amounts of traffic. The goal is to overwhelm the servers and making it temporarily inaccessible.
© BELGA PHOTO STEPHAN ENGLER
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