A cyberattack on the Ministry of Finance has been reported in the Netherlands

The IT security department of the Dutch Ministry of Finance detected an unauthorized intrusion into the ministry’s digital systems on March 19. 

On Monday, March 23, 2026, access to the affected systems was blocked, causing some employees to lose access to their work accounts, according to AD.nl. Despite the partial impact on internal processes, the ministry assured that core government functions, including payments and revenue collection, are operating without disruption as usual.

The cyberattack did not affect the operations of Customs, the Tax Service, and the Social Benefits Service, which continue to serve citizens and businesses. At this time, the ministry is not disclosing details regarding the nature of the breach; an immediate investigation is underway to determine all the circumstances of the incident. Specialists promptly restricted access to vulnerable segments of the network to prevent the intrusion from spreading further.

This incident occurred amid previous reports of personal data theft from residents of a municipality in the Netherlands by hackers from the Russian Federation. While Dutch experts are addressing the consequences of the breach, Lithuania is convening a national security commission following the crash of an unidentified drone near the border with Belarus. The global cyber threat and the activity of Russian technical assets are forcing EU countries to strengthen security measures for critical infrastructure and digital systems.

On March 20, 2026, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint warning about a global campaign by hackers linked to Russian intelligence services.

Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, who previously served as deputy head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND) and headed NATO intelligence, fell victim to a sophisticated phishing attack on the Signal messaging app.