Belgium is investigating allegations of data violations of national security services (VSSE) by Chinese hackers.
The Belgian Federal Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement sent to TechCrunch on Friday that the investigation into cyber attacks was opened in November 2023 after learning about violations.
This confirmed the initial report of the French Belgian newspaper LE SOIR, and the Chinese hacking group reported that it could access the external mail server of Intelligence Service between 2021 and 2023.
The unnamed Chinese hacking group is known to have used vulnerability in software of US cyber security firm Barracuda. The first important rating of Barracuda in May 2023 affects the company’s email security gateway (ESG) appliance.
Barracuda spokesman Lesley Sullivan told Techcrunch, “The question about all violations of VSSE is more appropriate to VSSE.” VSSE did not respond to Techcrunch’s questions.
Security Research Institute of US cyber security firms said that the vulnerabilities for hackers to expel -sensitive corporate data have been explained by the Chinese support cyber -breeding group for organizations around the world. According to Mandiant, almost one -third of the target organization was a government agency.
In June 2023, Barracuda called the patch for this vulnerability, but urged all the affected customers to replace the ESG devices affected by the vulnerability. We also advised our customers to rotate the credentials connected to home appliances and to confirm the signs of compromise that go back to October 2022.
According to Le SOIR, Chinese support hackers have deported 10%of the Belgian information service to receive and go out of Belgium. The classified information is not affected, but it is pointed out that it can access almost half of VSSE employees, including status documents, resume and internal communication.
VSSE suspended the use of Barakuda after cyber attack, which was first reported by local media in July 2023.
Jack Whiper contributed to the report.
