IT supplier ID-ware denies in a statement to the ANP news agency that personal data of members of the Senate and House of Representatives have been stolen through a hack at the company. In doing so, the company contradicts what State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Digitalization) wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives after de Volkskrant had published about the hack on Friday.
According to Van Huffelen, data of almost 3500 people who use the Rijkspas, the chip card that gives access to the parliament building and ministries, has been stolen. However, ID-ware, which plays a role in the passes, says that ‘to date it has not been shown that data from MPs or other public persons are involved in the data breach.’
The company does not say anything about the type of data that the hackers got their hands on. According to Van Huffelen, this concerns matters such as name, date of birth, gender, passport photo and national passport number. These are data that are necessary to create a Rijkspas, but according to the State Secretary it is not possible to make a pass with only this data that provides access to the building. ID-ware confirms that. The company also says it does not have the ‘necessary key material’ needed to gain access to government buildings.
ID-ware writes that on September 18, it found that part of its servers were no longer available due to a ransomware attack. This encrypts files that only become available again if, for example, a ransom has been paid. ID-ware says it has received a ransom request, but has not complied with it. According to the company, the attack was carried out by the ransomware group Black Cat.
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