Pro-Russia hackers target Flemish parliament, Belgian media ahead of local elections

The pro-Russia hacker group NoName057 carried out cyberattacks on Friday against the Flemish parliament website and several Belgian media outlets, including Belga News and De Standaard.

“We continue to send DDoS greetings to Belgium,” said the pro-Russian collective on Telegram. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks aim to overwhelm servers with requests, rendering the websites unaccessible for some time.

It is the fifth straight day of hacking activity against Belgium and it comes ahead of municipal elections on Sunday.

“The analysis [of cybersecurity experts] is that these attacks cannot in any way interfere with the elections,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Tuesday during a plenary session.

Flemish Minister of Home Affairs Hilde Crevits said the local elections can be organized safely because “the voting computers are not connected to the internet in any way and therefore cannot be hacked.”

The hackers this week have attacked the websites of several Belgian municipalities, government and port websites, as well as banking services and the Center for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB). The CCB said the attacks are “not dangerous” and only represent an “inconvenience.”

The hacker group reportedly said the spate of attacks are a response to Belgium’s continuing support to Ukraine and particularly its recent announcement that it will consider a proposal to purchase and transfer three Caesar howitzers to Kyiv. The pro-Russian group has been attacking the websites of Ukraine’s allies since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

“The Belgian government will soon be examining a proposal to purchase and transfer three Caesar artillery units to Ukraine,” the hacker group said on Telegram. “We have decided to pay a visit to Russophobic Belgium to show them how initiatives in support of the criminal regime in Kyiv end.”

NoName057 also hinted at further disruption on the day of the elections by noting them on their account. “On Sunday 13 October, Belgium will hold important elections: citizens will elect their local councillors,” read the Telegram post.