Approximately 200 websites in Belgium were knocked offline after a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack was launched against the publicly funded Internet Service Provider (ISP) Belnet. The threat actors behind the attack have not been identified. The attack began on Tuesday, May 4th, and affected government, academic, and research institutions throughout the country. Belnet successfully implemented mitigation processes to slow the attacks and has confirmed that the attacks were diminishing. The threat actors behind the DDoS attack constantly changed their tactics, which made it harder to mitigate. Belgium has a relatively new cyber security team in their nation, which makes the country a target.
Analyst Notes
DDoS attacks can have major effects on the companies they affect. Most notably, if critical infrastructure is taken down or disrupted that can cause varying issues. For government organizations, downtime can cause serious issues for residents and employees depending on the type of service that is taken out. Companies could have a bigger problem because downtime usually equates to a loss of revenue. Companies should have monitoring in place that can detect when a DDoS attack is being carried out. These detection services can find DDoS attacks quickly and help mitigate the problem. Companies should also have a response plan in place with their ISP so in case of a DDoS attack the ISP will know exactly how they can help the company.
More can be read here: https://www.govinfosecurity.com/ddos-attack-knocks-belgian-websites-offline-a-16528
