Cyber Incident Victim: Het Nieuwsblad
Date:
Oct 2016
Location:
Belgium
Summary
The Syrian Cyber Army claimed responsibility for DDoS attacks targeting multiple Belgian media outlets, including Het Nieuwsblad, causing significant downtime and degraded website performance. The group alleged the outlets failed to report Belgian military involvement in airstrikes near Aleppo, referencing disputed claims about F-16 jets participating in operations. The victim outlet accused Russia of financing the attackers and identified Turkish servers as infrastructure used in the assaults. Belgian authorities initiated an investigation into the incidents, noting potential connections between the perpetrators and the Syrian Electronic Army group.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On October 24, 2016, the Syrian Cyber Army (SCA) executed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Belgian media outlets, including Het Nieuwsblad, De Standaard, Gazet van Antwerpen, Het Belang van Limburg, and RTBF. The group publicly claimed responsibility through a message posted on its homepage, explicitly citing the targets' failure to report Belgium's involvement in an October 18 air strike near Aleppo as motivation. According to Russian military reports cited by the attackers, two Belgian F-16 jets had participated in a 03:00 AM operation that destroyed two houses in Hassadjek, resulting in six fatalities and four injuries. The attacks caused significant service disruptions, with most targeted websites experiencing prolonged downtime and others suffering severe performance degradation that rendered them nearly unusable due to extreme loading delays. Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard confirmed the cyberattacks on their digital platforms, validating the operational impact described by the SCA.
Belgian authorities initiated an investigation into the incidents, with law enforcement asserting probable connections between the SCA and the more established Syrian Electronic Army group. Het Nieuwsblad directly accused Russia of providing financial support to the SCA and identified Turkey-based servers as the infrastructure used to execute the attacks. The media outlet did not disclose technical specifics regarding attack vectors, mitigation measures, or duration of outages. No additional statements from other affected organizations or Belgian defense officials regarding the alleged air strike involvement were documented in the source material. The SCA's public justification linked the attacks directly to perceived omissions in conflict reporting, marking a geopolitical dimension to the disruption of media infrastructure.