The City of Antwerp’s IT system has fallen victim to a cyberattack. The city authorities are still investigating exactly how big the impact is. Public services, including schools and the police been affected.
Antwerp
Cyberattack launched on City of Antwerp’s IT system
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The problems started last night. Some of the city’s IT systems are only functioning intermittently. For example, council staff are sometimes able to read their emails and sometimes are not.
There are also issues impacting the provision of public services. The district hall in (central) Antwerp, that should have opened at 12 noon will remain closed for the rest of the day.
Although the city's website is still online, signing in or making appointment online is currently not possible. This is also the case for those that wish to use the local police service’s website. The city’s museums’ reservation system it’s also out of action
Alexandra d'Archambeau is a district councilor for liberals in Wilrijk. She told VRT News that cybersecurity in Belgium needs to be impoved.
Care services
The organisation that operates residential and daycare services in Antwerp Zorgbedrijf has also been affected by the cyberattack. Zorgbedrijf’s Director Johan De Muynck told VRT News that "Today we are having to record all information about medication manually instead of entering it into the computer. This is more time consuming, but there has been no data breach here."
IT technicians are still investigating what exactly is going on. The city authority says it is trying to limit the disruption to the public. It is not yet clear when the issues will be resolved.