The municipality of The Hague today invites ethical hackers to attack the digital infrastructure of the municipality. About 200 hackers from home and abroad try to get into certain websites and environments of the municipality, where this is normally prohibited.
Through ethical hacking, the municipality finds out how secure the systems are. “They help the organization by showing the vulnerabilities of the systems and then think along with solutions,” says The Hague alderman Saskia Bruines. Broadcasting West.
In this way it can be prevented, for example, that criminal hackers invade the systems and personal data are made public.
proud student
Juriën de Jong, 22, a Forensic IT student at the Hogeschool Leiden, is one of the hackers participating in Hâck The Hague. “I think it’s really cool to try to hack into a government agency, I hope I can make it happen.”
According to the student, it is not surprising that there may be holes in the computer security. “The digital infrastructure is made by people, it is human to make mistakes. If there is a mistake in one of the systems of the municipality, then as a municipality you naturally want to know.”
The municipality of The Hague rewards the best hackers with cash prizes between 500 and 2000 euros.
ROC Mondrian
Earlier this month, educational institution ROC Mondrian hacked in The Hague by malicious parties. As a result, staff and students were no longer able to access files and applications of MBO courses.
The cyber criminals wanted a ransom from the school. When they didn’t get that, they put the stolen data online. All kinds of internal documents, including information about teachers and students, became public as a result.
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