On Wednesday, Belgian telecom operators and a major hospital experienced a brief disruption when pro-Russian hackers, NoName057, launched a coordinated telecom DDoS attack, targeting Proximus, Scarlet and Ghent University Hospital by flooding systems with abnormal traffic, according to Belga news agency.
In Belgium, Proximus technicians detected a telecom website defacement and abnormal traffic at 7:20 a.m. and immediately worked on countermeasures.
“From 7:30, we saw a sharp increase in traffic. The impact was very limited: our systems held up,” said Proximus spokesperson Fabrice Gansbeke.
Around the same time, Ghent University Hospital experienced delays in communication with external systems, though patient care was never compromised. The pro-Russian hacker group NoName057 claimed responsibility of the telecom disruption attack, linking the attack to remarks by Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken, who had said NATO would “flatten” Moscow if Russia struck Brussels.
“We advise the Belgian minister not to throw such statements around,” the group wrote on Telegram.
Encrypted Communications Organized Crime
Belgium dealt with immediate digital disruption due to the telecom DDoS attack, but courts across the Western Balkans were facing a different but related reality, encrypted communications remain central to the operations of major criminal networks and policing encrypted apps to law enforcement efforts to dismantle them.
“In a 30-year career, I have never been tasked with examining weapons solely based on photographs,” said a ballistics expert testifying in the trial of the alleged Radoje Zvicer Group, admitting he could not verify weapons shown in Sky ECC photos used as evidence.
Across the region, courts are wrestling with evidence obtained from platforms, like Sky ECC, EncroChat and Anom. Much of the evidence cracked or secretly run by police can be used in prosecutions. The French Supreme Court has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on whether EU citizens can challenge the legality of such hacking operations, a decision that could reshape criminal cases across Europe.
Despite legal challenges of mitigating telecom DDoS attacks, decrypted platforms have offered investigators unprecedented access into organized crime, intricate drug-trafficking routes, logistics chains, payments and cross-border coordination stretching from Latin America to Europe via West Africa.
Between 2021 and 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina launched 30 investigations based solely on Sky ECC intercepts, charging 170 suspects. But criminals adapt swiftly.
As soon as a platform is compromised, groups migrate to new ones, develop in-house tools, or turn to satellite phones and niche encrypted apps. The cycle has become a high-tech cat-and-mouse game.
Critical Infrastructure Telecom Attack
The telecom DDoS attack in Belgium shows how state-aligned hacker groups increasingly mirror the agility of criminal networks. NoName057, which previously targeted Belgian systems during the October elections, boasted of hitting Proximus, Scarlet and an internal Telenet portal though Telenet denied any breach. Other Belgian entities, including CP Bourg in Wavre and the municipality of Comines-Warneton, were also affected.
Ghent University Hospital reported restored systems by 11:00 a.m., but the incident highlighted the vulnerability of healthcare infrastructure. While attempts to protect against DDoS attacks can help, the attacks themselves do not compromise data but can slow or block access to critical systems.
Both the Belgian attacks and the Balkan court battles reveal a broader trend: whether for political disruption or criminal profit, digital tools encrypted apps, botnets, hacked servers are shaping modern security challenges and they aren’t able to proceed with protecting telecom infrastructure.
As law enforcement on the telecom cybersecurity attack gains new investigative advantages through cracked platforms, adversaries evolve just as quickly, ensuring the struggle over digital territory remains continuous, global and deeply intertwined.
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