Number of digital attacks at government doubles in two years

In the past year, the National Cyber ​​Security Center received 293 reports of digital attacks from the government. This is evident from figures requested by De Volkskrant. The number of attacks has doubled in two years.

It is not clear exactly how big the incidents were. De Volkskrant reports in its paper edition that the NCSC receives a report of an ICT incident 50 times a month, but this also concerns reports from private companies. In half of the cases, it concerns attempts to install malware or to steal login details, whether successful or not.

The NCSC figures show that the government reports the most incidents, followed by the financial sector, followed by telecom and ICT companies. According to De Volkskrant, the number of incidents at companies that are reported to the NCSC is also increasing, but this is mainly because companies report incidents to the government organization more quickly.

The National Detection System, set up last year, consisting of sensors installed in the networks of various parts of the government, has now detected 29 incidents. However, it is unclear whether the detection system has managed to reduce the impact of security incidents or even prevent them.