Belgian authorities this year received thrice as many declarations of online crimes - such as pirated accounts, cyberattacks and hacked computers - compared to 2018.
The figures on cybercrimes were released by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès, who is also in charge of the Centre for Cybersecurity in Belgium.
The Centre’s Computer Emergency Response Team received 4,484 cyberattack declarations this year, up from 1,600 last year.
“Most of these attacks are fraud attempts such as phishing, business email compromise, Microsoft scams and sextortion scams,” Centre Spokesperson Katrien Eggers said. “But we also receive cyberattack declarations that have to do with DDOS, pirated accounts, ransome ware etc.”
"This year, the federal police also received 40% more complaints,” Prime Minister Wilmès said. "This is a significant increase and, yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg, because businesses do not systematically declare the cyberattacks to which they are subjected.”
The Brussels Times
