Dutch Ministry of Finance disclosed a data breach affecting some employees following a cyberattack, investigation is ongoing.
The Dutch Ministry of Finance disclosed a cyberattack detected on March 19 after a third-party alert. Attackers breached some internal systems, the incident impacted a “portion of the employees”.
Authorities are still investigating the incident and its full impact.
“The Ministry of Finance’s ICT security detected unauthorized access to systems for a number of primary processes within the policy department on Thursday, March 19.” reads the statement issued by Dutch Ministry of Finance. “Following the alert, an immediate investigation was launched, and access to these systems has been blocked as of today. This affects the work of a portion of the employees.”
The Ministry pointed out that services for citizens and businesses, including tax, customs, and benefits, remain unaffected.
“Services to citizens and businesses provided by the Tax and Customs Administration, Customs, and Benefits have not been affected.” continues the report.
The Dutch Ministry of Finance did not disclose technical details about the attack, and no cybercrime group has claimed responsibility so far.
In October 2024, the Dutch police blamed a state actor for the recent data breach that exposed officers’ contact details, the justice minister told lawmakers. The incident took place on September 26, 2024, and the police have reported the security breach to the Data Protection Authority.
Threat actors broke into a police system and gained access to work-related contact details of multiple officers. The attackers had access to names, emails, phone numbers, and some private information belonging to police officers.
Dutch intelligence agencies believe it is highly likely that a state actor was behind the data breach.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Dutch Finance Ministry)
