Cyber attack against Belgium city of Antwerp claimed by Play ransomware

On Thursday 5^th of December 2022, Digipolis, the IT company responsible for managing the Belgium city of Antwerp’s IT systems, suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted the city’s IT, email, and phone services. It was reported that many of the city’s Windows applications were no longer available, and City council member Alexandra d’Archambeau publicly tweeted that email was not available. It also resulted in the city warning that almost all services are unavailable or significantly delayed, including job applications, use of libraries, and new agreements with the city.

At first, it was unclear who was behind the cyber attack, although local media had confirmed that it was a ransomware attack. However, over the weekend, it was noted that the Play ransomware operation had started listing Antwerp as one of its victims. The entry claimed to have stolen 557 GB of data during the attack, including personal information, passports, IDs, and financial documents.