Last Friday, June 22, fake MijnOverheid emails were received by citizens. There were 203 cases of people being tricked into entering their login information on a fake website. This practice by criminals is also known as phishing. The DigiD accounts were subsequently blocked immediately. However, further analysis showed that malicious parties had gained access to the personal data in the MijnOverheid account of the affected individuals that can normally only be viewed by themselves. State Secretary Knops writes this today in a letter to the House of Representatives.
The fake website was taken down immediately upon discovery last week. When citizens logged into this site, the data entered was captured and automatically logged into MijnOverheid. There is a possibility that personal data was collected. The DigiD accounts in question were subsequently blocked immediately. Implementing organization Logius (the administrator of DigiD and MijnOverheid) has reported this to the police and the possible data breach has been reported to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Involved agencies such as the National Cyber Security Center and the National Service for Identity Data are working closely together in dealing with this action. UWV, Tax Office and SVB have been notified. This is the current state of affairs; further investigation is underway.
The affected citizens have been notified by Logius. They are now being contacted personally and advised on what to watch out for to prevent misuse of their stolen data and where to report if misuse occurs.
The government continues to actively work to combat phishing. The government runs continuous education campaigns on safe internet use and informs people on how to recognize fake emails, for example. In fact, MijnOverheid itself NEVER sends emails with a link.
State Secretary Knops has indicated that he and the Minister of Justice and Security will examine what additional actions are possible to further complicate phishing, guarantee data security and at the same time ensure the availability of digital government services.
