The website of the municipality of Ede has recently been the target of an attack, in which the perpetrators may have had access to the database containing details of 3,700 citizens. Research shows that the perpetrators probably did not want personal data.
The database that was accessible to the criminals contained the name, address, place of residence, e-mail address and telephone number of people who used the general contact form on ede.nl in the period January 7, 2015 to July 8, 2016 Some of them had also entered their social security number and bank account number and the database also contained some email addresses of municipal employees. Ede will personally inform all those involved about the consequences.
The municipality commissioned a security agency to investigate the hack, which concluded that the perpetrators broke into the server to manipulate search engines. Their purpose would have been to redirect visitors to external sites containing advertisements and offers to borrow money. The agency has no indications that the criminals actually accessed the database, but cannot rule it out either. The attack likely originated in Eastern Europe, where criminals were more likely to use these types of tactics for search manipulation.
The municipality of Ede has since deleted the database and points out to those involved the possibility of holding the municipality liable if demonstrable damage has been suffered, for example through identity fraud.