BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The Belgian federal prosecutor said on Wednesday it had started a probe into alleged Chinese hacking of Belgium’s intelligence service VSSE in November 2023, confirming an earlier report by Belgian daily Le Soir.
The prosecutor added that it had received an accusation filed by VSSE in relation to the case.
The Chinese embassy in Belgium did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Le Soir reported that for two years, hackers allegedly linked to Chinese espionage had exploited a breach in an American cyber company and gained access to 10% of the Belgian intelligence service’s emails. While classified data remained safe, the personal information of nearly half of the Belgian service’s members may have been compromised, the newspaper reported.
The federal prosecutor did not immediately confirm details of the investigation and added it was too early to share results as the probe was still under way.
The Belgian intelligence service declined to comment and referred to the prosecutor’s statement.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Lili Bayer, Editing by William Maclean)
