International News

BRUSSELS, (APP/AFP): Belgium’s network of nuclear
power plants and other major infrastructure face the threat of a cyber-attack over the next five years, the European Union’s
counter-terror chief said in an interview published Saturday.
“I would not be surprised if there was an attempt in the
next five years to use the Internet to commit an attack,” Gilles
de Kerchove told daily La Libre Belgique.
“It would take the form of entering the SCADA (Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition), which is the nerve centre of a
nuclear power plant, a dam, air traffic control centre or
railroad switching station,” he added.
His concerns come as Belgium is on high alert following
Tuesday’s suicide bombings at Brussels airport and aboard a metro
train that killed 31 people and injured some 300.
Belgium’s neighbours have raised concerns over the country’s
creaking nuclear plants for some time, after a series of problems
ranging from leaks to cracks and an unsolved sabotage incident.
Doel 1, the country’s oldest reactor, was originally
shuttered in February 2015 under a law calling for the country’s
gradual phasing out of nuclear power, but the government then
restarted it under an extension deal.
According to reports, a security guard at a Belgian nuclear
power plant was murdered Thursday and his access badge stolen.
Officials were not immediately available to comment.
These reports follow the discovery by investigators last
year of surveillance footage of a Belgian nuclear plant official
in the flat of a suspect linked to the Brussels and Paris attacks.