AMSTERDAM - Cyberattacks have reached an "industrial scale," and the cyber security threat against the Netherlands is increasing faster than Dutch companies' and organizations' resilience against them. The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) said that in their annual Cyber Security Image for the Netherlands on Monday. "This skewed growth increases the risk of disruption of our society." 

According to the NCTV and NCSC, the question is no longer if but when companies, the government, knowledge institutions, and other organizations will be attacked. "Having the basic measures in order helps, but they are far from being implemented properly everywhere. There is still too little multifactor identification and the creating and testing of backups." 

Cyberattacks by foreign intelligence and security services are becoming commonplace, the Dutch watchdogs said, referring to Russian cyberattacks on several EU member states and China targeting Europe and North America on a large scale. According to the NCTV and NCSC, states increasingly hire, tolerate, or pressure cybercriminals to carry out their attacks. 

Ransomware attacks are also still widespread, with perpetrators now extorting not only the primarily affected organization but also its customers, partners, or suppliers. The abuse of cloud services is also becoming increasingly common. "Cloud services have become a crucial part of business processes in recent years. Failure or disruption can have large-scale consequences for Dutch organizations and sectors," the watchdogs said.