third Cyber Security Assessment Netherlands - NCSC

(variations of ) DDoS and defacement. Finally, botnets are an
important tool for various actors.
The greatest threat at the moment for governments is aimed at the
importance of the confidentiality of information (particularly
against espionage) and continuity of online services (including
generic services) and their own IT. This threat comes from a number
of sides: states, professional criminals, hacktivists and cyber
vandals/script kiddies.
The most important threat for the business community concerns
espionage aimed at information that is sensitive to competition and
of the abuse of financial data for the purpose of theft of monetary
values. This also happens through the manipulation of information
in the form of changes made to (bank) transactions. An important
threat that has increased over the past year is that of disruption of
online services particularly for businesses that provide vital online
services. Moreover, business information of all types is stolen by
several different groups of actors for their own use, for publication
or for selling on to third parties. Examples include client data or
information about the IT provisions in businesses.
The number of incidents handled by the NCSC increased significantly
during the reporting period. The main reason for this
increase is that as from 5 January 2012 private parties are now also
served by the NCSC. In the nature of the incidents involving the
government there has been a relative increase in malware infections
(+13 per cent) and hacking attempts (+5 per cent).
Finding out about the Pobelka botnet provided insight into the
large numbers of infected computers and the quantity of the leaked
data by means of a botnet that had remained undetected up to that
time. There are probably many more undetected botnets. This also
shows that the measures currently available for detecting this type
of attack are not sufficient.
Basic provisions have been the target of attacks in recent times.
These include the attacks on iDeal and DigiD that made online
payments in web shops temporarily impossible and logging into
government services inaccessible, respectively. «
Citizens are affected by identity fraud and blackmail. Citizens
become involved when it is their data that is stolen, published, sold
or misused. Even when the information is stolen directly from
them, interests such as money (damage through attacks on
electronic banking), privacy, availability of online services and
digital identity are all affected. Citizens are particularly concerned
with the protection of their own computers and electronic
equipment against malware and ransomware. Citizens are affected
indirectly when they are involved in a cyber attack through their
own IT becoming part of a botnet.
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