Belgium's tax agency takes online services offline after cyberattack

Belgium's finance and tax agency, known as FOD Financiën, says it was hit by a cyberattack and took several online services offline. The main tax portal, MyMinfin, is down, along with Tax-on-web and Biztax. The agency confirmed the attack on Wednesday.

What changed

The agency says taking the services offline limits risk and lets technical staff do the repair work needed to keep its systems secure. That has a direct effect on deadlines. The October 31 deadline to file taxes on certain types of income, such as sole traders and earnings from foreign companies, now moves to November 16. The agency expects MyMinfin to be back by then.

A large part of the agency's other applications is still available, with full or partial functionality.

What is still unknown

The agency says there are no signs that a data breach happened or that data was compromised. It adds that this is still being closely investigated. Spokesperson Francis Adyns told local media the attack was stopped within hours and could not spread far enough to take over applications or reach data. Parts that might have been infected were isolated, which is why the three services went dark.

Restoring them is slow. Adyns said the services must be rebuilt in an isolated environment, which takes considerable time and care to rule out new risks. The agency has not said who was behind the attack or how it started.