Huge hack in town Almelo: probably personal

It almost certainly personal. The presumption is that the 20 gigabyte of data sent by malware to an unknown site. By whom or why is unknown.

The incident was reported to the Authority for Personal Data. Research has yielded no certainty about the nature of the data. Because the data comes from the network environment of the Werkplein Twente, there are, according to the municipality 'strong suspicions' that it is personal.

Large amount of
According to IT security expert Erik Westhovens, which showed a leak in DigiD in 2014, has 20 gigabytes 'a vast amount'. ,, Data breaches by governments are more common, but not in such quantities. Then you usually have about megabytes, not gigabytes. "He also said that with such amounts of data" the 99.99 percent certain that there are personal data.

The city council of Almelo yesterday afternoon informed. The municipalities Tubbergen, and Dinkelland Wierden, which also use the Werkplein in Almelo, be informed of the leak. The Werkplein Twente, a collaboration between UWV and municipalities are trying to help people into work.

The intrusion into the system is more or less discovered by accident. The amount of data is not systematically monitored in Almelo.

Terrible
Responsible councilor Javier Cornelissen says it is "terrible" when it actually comes to 20 gigabytes of personal data. ,, That's a huge amount. "The specialized company Secure Labs research did last week, but there is little true. The fact that the theft was committed with the help of malware is suspected. ,, The malware itself is not found," says Cornelissen.Malware is software that secretly placed on a computer, with the aim to steal information or damage.

In cooperation with the Information Office of the Municipalities VNG Almelo trying to figure out what exactly happened. To that end, a simulation done in a secure environment.Cornelissen does not exclude that the answer is not to find out more.

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