malware

The Dutch police are concerned about an increasingly popular development in cybercrime, which the police refer to as cybercrime-as-service. Criminals can now buy cyber attacks easily, cheaply and at any time of day or night, the police said in a statement.

A few dozen Dutch companies have been infected with ransomware SamSam, according to security company Fox-IT. A precise number can not be given because it is unknown how many companies paid the ransom or managed to get rid of the malware themselves, NOS reports.

The websites of dozens of Dutch municipalities and various government websites in the United Kingdom and United States were infected with malware that hijacked site visitors' processing power to mine cryptocurrency Monero. Over 4,200 websites were affected worldwide, NU.nl reports.

When mining cryptocurrency, the processing power of a computer is used to validate transactions on the cryptocurrency network. Those who make their computers available for this are rewarded with crypto coins. 

Dutch companies, government institutions and citizens are not responding fast enough against growing digital threats, according to National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security Dick Schoof. At home and at work Dutch people often opt for the fastest solution, instead of the most secure one. Which means that the gap between threats and security measures is getting larger instead of smaller, Schoof said in the Netherlands Cyber Security Image 2017, ANP reports.

During the first quarter of this year, two Dutch government institutions and a company in the energy sector were infected with ransomware, AD reports based on information obtained from the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) by appealing to the freedom of information act. Ransomware is a type of malware that blocks access to files on an infected computer. The user can regain access to the files by paying a ransom, usually demanded in bitcoins.

Ransomware - a form of malware that takes your personal files and data "hostage" and only releases them once you've paid a sum of money - is getting more and more sophisticated, security expert Martin van Dantzig of Fox-IT warned in the Volkskrant. This last period has seen particularly rapid professionalization, he said.

A 22-year-old man from Maassluis was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of hacking, fraud and money laundering. The police got track of him after a bank pressed charges. He was traced based on thousands of collection notices he sent while pretending to be organizations like PostNL or collection agency Intrum Justitia

Hackers are increasingly targeting the Netherlands and cybercrime and digital espionage remain the biggest threats to the digital security in the country. This is greatly influenced by geopolitical developments, such as international conflicts and political sensitivities.

A total of 8.3 percent of worldwide cyber attacks in the second quarter of this year originated in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is thereby third on the rankings, behind Russia - 51 percent of all attacks - and the United States - 12 percent of attacks.

The Netherlands joined forces with the FBI and Europol's European Cybercrime Center and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce to take down the Beebone botnet, Europol announced on their website yesterday. The operation was led by the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit.

Ransomware, a form of malware that restricts access to infected computer systems and demands that a ransom be paid to the creators of the malware to remove the restriction, is on the rise in the Netherlands.