🇳🇱 Dutch, 7 October 2026, cybersecurity incident
Geraardsbergen Receives Positive Audit Report on Cybersecurity
Geraardsbergen, Belgium received a positive report from Audit Vlaanderen on the cybersecurity of its municipal services.
The city of Geraardsbergen was hacked four years ago, and in 2022, hackers sabotaged the city’s computers, stealing data from residents and threatening to leak it online. The hackers’ demands for ransom were ignored by the city’s authorities.
The stolen data was later published on the dark web, but the hackers’ gang was dismantled by the police soon after. Audit Vlaanderen investigated the cybersecurity of Geraardsbergen and nine other municipalities.
The city’s officials are proud of their cybersecurity efforts, but there are still some work points, including unclear contracts with software providers.