Belgium's tax agency confirms cyberattack, pulls services offline

Officials confirm this week’s tax deadlines extended to November as a result

Belgium's finance and tax agency has pulled "several" digital services offline after a cyberattack on the organization.

FOD Financiën confirmed the attack on Wednesday, saying that MyMinfin, the agency's main online tax portal, as well as other online services, are temporarily unavailable while they start the initial investigations.

"This measure helps limit the risks and makes it possible to carry out the necessary technical interventions to ensure the security of our systems," it said in a public announcement.

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FOD Financiën added that "this has consequences for tax deadlines in the near future," referring to the October 31 extended deadline to submit tax filings for specific types of income, such as sole traders and earnings from foreign companies.

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The agency confirmed the deadline will be extended to November 16, by which time MyMinfin, the platform through which such filings would normally be submitted, should be back up and running.

The detail offered up in the public statement reflects the early stage of the investigation; not much is known, although there is nothing to suggest data was compromised.

"Data protection is a top priority for the FOD Financiën," it said. "At present, there are no indications that a data breach has occurred or that data has been compromised. This aspect is also being closely investigated and followed up.

"In the meantime, a large part of our other applications remains available with full or partial functionality. We are closely monitoring the situation and doing everything we can to make the affected services available again as soon as possible."

Spokesperson Francis Adyns told local news outlets that the attack was thwarted within hours, and that it was unable to gain access to applications or data.

"The attack could not be sufficiently expanded within our environment to take over applications or gain access to data," he told Nieuwsblad. "Elements that were potentially infected were isolated. As a result, MyMinfin, Tax-on-web, and Biztax went offline, but the hacking was successfully stopped.

"The various services must be restored in an isolated environment. This requires considerable time to realize, with the necessary caution to rule out new risks." ®