The Dutch Finance Ministry acknowledged a cyber intrusion into some of its computer systems that was discovered the previous week.

Authorities stated they were alerted to the security incident on March 19 by an outside source and are currently investigating. The ongoing inquiry determined that some staff members are impacted.

“On Thursday, March 19, the Finance Ministry’s IT security team identified unauthorized entry into systems responsible for key policy-making activities,” according to an official announcement.

“After the warning, an immediate probe was launched, and access to the compromised systems has been shut down as of today. This has consequences for the tasks of a portion of the workforce.”

The ministry further clarified that the intrusion did not affect the platforms that handle tax collection, import/export rules, or subsidy distribution, which process over 9.5 million income tax filings annually.

“The services offered to the public and businesses through the Tax and Customs Administration, Customs, and Benefits programs remain unaffected. We will issue an updated statement as more details become available.”

Although the ministry acknowledged that the incident affected some personnel, it did not specify the number of individuals impacted or whether any private information was stolen. Also, no hacking organization or malicious parties have claimed responsibility for the intrusion.

BleepingComputer contacted a representative of the Finance Ministry requesting information about the incident, including the total number of affected employees and the duration the hackers had access to the affected systems, but an immediate reply was not obtained.

In September 2024, the Netherlands police force (Politie) also suffered a data breach, which was suspected to be the work of a “nation-state actor” that compromised professional contact details of numerous officers.

More recently, in February, Dutch law enforcement apprehended a 40-year-old man for attempted blackmail after he downloaded private documents accidentally released by the police and demanded compensation in exchange for their deletion.