Several digital services run by Belgium’s Ministry of Finance remained offline on Thursday after a cyberattack, but the tax authority said no data had been leaked and extended the filing deadline for affected tax returns from 31 October to 16 November.
The attack penetrated the finance ministry’s systems during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to spokesman Francis Adyns.
It was detected within a few hours. The tax authority said it identified several attempts to alter parts of its digital environment.
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The attack was contained before the intruders could take control of applications or gain access to data, the ministry said.
Potentially infected elements were isolated as a precaution. As a result, MyMinfin, Tax-on-web, and Biztax were taken offline, but the hacking attempt was successfully stopped.
The ministry said the affected services now have to be restored in an isolated environment. However, that process will take time, they said, because it must be carried out carefully to avoid creating new risks. Finance officials did not say when the services would be available again.
Belgium’s federal police and the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium are involved in the investigation into who is behind the attack.
The disruption affected tax returns with specific income declarations that had originally been due on 31 October through Tax-on-web. Because of the outage, all returns that had to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance by that date can now be filed until 16 November.
The ministry had already said on Wednesday that there were no indications of a data breach or that any information had been stolen.
