Brussels, October 25, 2026 – The Europe Today: At least 47 companies and institutions in Belgium have suffered data breaches since the beginning of 2026, according to research conducted by the Belgian financial daily L’Echo and Fox&Fish Cyberdefense, a figure that has been confirmed by the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium.
According to L’Echo, the affected organisations span a wide range of sectors, including municipalities, hospitals, travel agencies and private businesses. The Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium had recorded 40 affected entities throughout 2025, indicating that the frequency of such incidents is accelerating.
Experts caution that the trend is likely to intensify further. “With AI, the volume of hacks and data leaks will multiply in the coming months,” Mathias Vissers, co-founder of Fox&Fish, told L’Echo, warning that organisations “must prepare for the shock”.
The compromised data, which can subsequently be purchased on the dark web for a few hundred euros, includes names, dates of birth, bank account numbers, telephone numbers and home addresses. In some cases, the breaches have also exposed more unexpected personal material, such as family photographs.
Cybersecurity specialists note that when such information is cross-referenced with other available data, criminals can use it to identify and target victims, gain their trust and defraud them more effectively, particularly through phishing attacks.
The findings underline the growing pressure on Belgian public and private institutions to strengthen their cybersecurity defences as threat actors increasingly exploit artificial intelligence to scale up their operations.
