Belgium tax agency pulls services offline after cyberattack

FOD Financiën, Belgium's finance and tax agency, confirmed on Wednesday that it took several online services offline after a cyberattack, The Register reported. MyMinfin, the agency's main tax portal, was made temporarily unavailable while FOD Financiën began initial investigations, and Tax-on-web and Biztax also went offline, according to spokesperson Francis Adyns.

The agency said the shutdown was meant to reduce risk and allow the technical work needed to secure its systems. It added that the move affects tax deadlines in the near future: the October 31 deadline for filings covering sole traders and income from foreign companies has been extended to November 16, by which point MyMinfin should be running again.

FOD Financiën said there are currently no indications of a data breach or compromised data, and that data protection is a top priority. Adyns told Nieuwsblad that the intrusion was stopped within hours, did not spread far enough to take over applications or data, and that potentially infected elements were isolated.

Adyns said the services have to be brought back in a separate environment, which takes considerable time and caution to avoid new risks. The agency said many of its other applications are still working, either fully or partly.