Dutch water, power companies targeted in cyberattacks, intelligence service warns
The companies that provide Dutch households with water, electricity, and light are being targeted by cyberattacks, Bas Dunnebier, chief science & technology officer at the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), told EenVandaag. State actors are “embedding themselves” in these vital sectors, he said.
In the past, other governments were primarily interested in targeting the government. “But we’re also seeing them increasingly interested in knowledge at educational institutions, economic espionage in the business community, and also in vital infrastructure,” Dunnebier said. Vital infrastructure is “everything we depend on,” he said, mentioning electricity, gas, water, and the internet.
“You should specifically consider what we call state actors, countries: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran,” Dunnebier told EenVandaag. According to him, China is primarily interested in knowledge and expertise. North Korea is out for financial gain. “They try to steal bitcoins to ultimately purchase weapons, or goods they can’t obtain with their own currency.” And Russia is focused on influencing public opinion through disinformation, among other things.
So far, the Netherlands has avoided actual chaos, Dunnebier said. But he warns that Russia is “embedding itself” in the “vital sector so they can disrupt it.” And then “chaos could potentially ensue.”
Last year, the police were the victim of a hack carried out by the Russian Group, Laundry Bear. The reason behind the hack was never determined. In July, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced that it had been hacked. It is currently investigating whether sensitive data was compromised. AD reported that there are indications that Russian hackers are behind this attack, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Dunnebier referred to the recent power outage in Portugal and Spain. Traffic lights stopped working, the phone service was down, and people were stuck in elevators. “That could happen in the Netherlands as well,” he told EenVandaag. "I do think that in the Netherlands, with all the luxury we have here, we need to be more aware that it could also fail one day."
