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Belgium’s finance agency took MyMinfin and other services offline after a cyberattack on October 28.
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The agency says it stopped the attack within hours and confirms that no data was leaked.
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Officials moved several tax deadlines to November 16, while users on X question online government services.
Belgium’s tax portal stayed offline for a second day after a cyberattack hit the country’s finance agency. The agency says the attackers did not get any data. Security teams are still working to bring the services back. The incident began on October 28 and has already disrupted tax filing for people and businesses.
Finance Agency Shuts Down MyMinfin After Cyberattack
Belgium’s Federal Public Service Finance, known as FOD Financiën, is fixing its online services. A cyberattack disrupted its digital systems on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. The agency then shut down MyMinfin and several other government services as a safety step. Reports say those services were still unavailable on the second day.
MyMinfin is the country’s main online tax portal. Individuals and businesses use it to manage their tax affairs. They also look up past tax returns and send in their declarations through the site. This makes the portal a daily tool for many taxpayers.
The shutdown blocked taxpayers from reaching their tax details. It also stopped them from sending some declarations online. The timing made the problem worse. An October 31 filing deadline was only a few days away.
According to an official update published on October 29, the agency spotted the attack within hours. Its security tools and monitoring systems caught the activity early. Officials say the attackers failed to take control of any applications. They also failed to reach any data.
The agency then isolated the potentially affected parts from the rest of its systems. This step caused the shutdown of MyMinfin and the other affected services. FOD Financiën also confirmed that no data had been leaked. The Federal Police and Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium now investigate the incident. They are working to find the people behind it. Their work has two goals: to learn what happened and to name those responsible.
Tax Deadline Moves to November 16 as Repairs Continue
The agency says it stopped the attack. Still, bringing the services back is a hard task, and the work is not done yet. Officials explained that they must rebuild the affected online services in a separate, isolated space. Isolating the services means keeping them apart from the agency’s other systems while the team works. This work needs extra time and care. The agency wants to avoid any new security risks.
The outage also hit taxpayers who were close to their filing dates. The Finance Ministry responded with a new deadline. Affected declarations that were due around October 31 now have until November 16, 2026. The extra time lets individuals and businesses meet their tax duties. It also gives the agency room to restore normal work. The new date applies to the affected declarations, so officials moved several deadlines together.
Early reports focused on the service outage and the ministry’s search for possible data exposure. The October 29 update gave a clearer picture. Officials confirmed that no information had leaked. As of the latest official update, the agency had not announced a date for restoring the services.
Tax records can also become a target for cybercriminals, as shown by a separate case in which stolen tax documents were reportedly sold for $20 on the dark web, raising concerns about fraud risks.
Users on X Question Reliance on Online Government Services
The incident drew strong reactions on X from users who followed the report. Some users talked about the trouble of losing access to key government services. They discussed the inconvenience of having no access to the portal. Others questioned the safety of putting so much on one central digital platform. Their posts mixed worry with humor as the outage continued into a second day.
Responding to the report, @L0ssJs0n asked what happens when governments move key services online without a backup plan. This user also wondered what data the attackers might have taken before officials stopped them. Similarly, @daniiie7 said a portal that holds old tax returns for a whole country could attract attackers. The user asked whether any data had escaped, or whether the attack only blocked the filing services.
Other reactions were more sarcastic. @MightyBuddha01 joked about the idea of Belgians filing tax returns. The post made light of the whole situation. @Glounge5 pointed out an irony. Taxpayers cannot file, yet they may still receive warnings about tax evasion. Meanwhile, @notyoursid described the attack as one they supported. @Albus_Morio jokingly asked the hackers to erase everyone’s taxes. @yamuradotdev replied with a careless shrug and moved on. That short reply showed how some users felt about the news.
The humour aside, the incident raises fair questions about public services during cyber incidents. Belgium’s authorities maintain that no data was leaked. Even so, the outage hurt taxpayers who needed the portal before their deadline. It also shows how a single attack on one agency can disrupt services used by millions. The investigation continues. Taxpayers are waiting for the affected platforms to return.
