Security Boulevard Community Chats Webinars Library How a DDoS Attack on an Internet Service Provider Can Paralyze Critical Infrastructure The motivation behind Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is often unknown. In some cases it might be cyber-vandalism, causing disruption for disruption’s sake. In other cases it might be down to hactivism, reaction to a cause or an event. And while DDoS attacks on business enterprises can result in huge commercial losses due to downtime, the reverberations of a DDoS attack are not always purely economic. This week Belgium was hit by a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack causing disruption to the services of more than 200 organizations in the country including government, parliamentary, healthcare and academic institutions. The large-scale attack, which started on Tuesday May 4, targeted the network of Belgian internet service provider (ISP) BelNet and was still in progress on Wednesday with the attacks taking place in successive waves. In response to the attack, Belnet immediately activated its crisis procedures and contacted the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) to bring the attack under control.