Hackers have penetrated Edpnet’s computer systems. Although the Belgian telecom operator does not report data theft, customers have been unable to log into their accounts since Saturday.
Edpnet informed its customers Monday evening about a cyber attack. The telecom operator reports that hackers were able to penetrate its administrative systems. It makes no further mention of a data breach. The Belgian news publisher De Tijd knows the company has not yet found evidence of misuse of potentially obtained data.
Customers feel the impact when logging into their customer accounts. According to Edpnet, this is caused by technical problems. No impact can be felt on Internet services, the company said.
Edpnet provides these internet services as an independent part of Citymesh, a recent player in the Belgian telecom market. In November 2023, after Proximus finally shelved its acquisition plans for Edpnet, Edpnet became part of Citymesh. With this move, Citymesh gained direct access to the residential market. Its customer base is not too large; however, about a year ago, Proximus reported that Edpnet serves about 46,000 customers for fixed Internet and about 13,500 for mobile.
Isolation seems successful
The telecom operator noticed technical problems since Saturday morning. Reports of the security incident arrived only Monday evening. In its message to customers, Edpnet reports that it responded “quickly and appropriately”. It reports that the impact of the hack was thus limited. So perhaps the communication followed only a few days after the affected computer system was isolated. Indeed, hackers would have only had access to administrative systems.
The necessary follow-up steps are already being made: “We immediately took the necessary steps to provide additional security for the systems against further exposure and launched an investigation in cooperation with cyber security experts.”
The third major Belgian victim
Edpnet is the third major Belgian victim hackers made in a week. A ransomware attack first hit the Duvel Moortgat breweries. A few days later, that was followed up by a cyber attack on the computer systems of Koffie Beyers. It is unclear whether ransomware was also spread during the attacks on the coffee roaster and the telecom operator.