Belgium lambasts China over malicious cyberattacks

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Belgium has severely criticized China's malicious cyberattacks against the country's federal ministries and called on Beijing to take steps to investigate the matter, media reports said.

Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused China of cyberattacks against its federal ministries and Interior Ministries.

"Belgium strongly condemns these malicious cyber-attacks, which contravene the standards of responsible state conduct endorsed by all United Nations member states," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported Brussels Times.

It added that the cyberattacks against the Belgian Government "have considerably affected our sovereignty, our democracy, our security, and our society".

Belgium's Cybersecurity Center has previously suggested that the attacks against its Interior Ministry was carried out with an ambition to gather intelligence.

Notably, the Chinese hackers have had access to the Ministry of the Interior for two years. In 2021, the attacks on the Ministry of Defence resulted in the Ministry's network being cut off from the internet for weeks and its staff not being able to communicate via email.

Belgium media have the country's defence ministry of an insufficient cybersecurity protocol after it bought hundreds of Huawei wifi routers at the start of 2022. Huawei equipment is considered a security threat with various governments, including in the UK, deciding to ban the company from working on its 5G rollout due to concerns of security breaches by China, as per the media portal.

In addition, Belgium's Defence has purchased video surveillance equipment from Chinese companies, Hikvision and Dahua, which have glitches in their system and could be easy to hack.

Meanwhile, Chinese hackers, reportedly sent