The International Criminal Court (ICC) said it was hit by a “sophisticated and targeted” cyberattack as NATO leaders gathered in The Hague for a summit last week. The ICC, which is based in The Hague, said it detected the incident “late last week” and had contained the threat. “A Court-wide impact analysis is being carried out, and steps are already being taken to mitigate any effects of the incident,” the court said in a statement on Monday. The Hague was the scene of the NATO Summit early last week. Dutch cybersecurity authorities reported a series of cyberattacks known as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against local governments and other institutions in the run-up and during the summit. Those attacks, limited in impact, were claimed by known pro-Russian hacktivist groups online. A power outage also caused massive disruption to train traffic in the country last Tuesday. Dutch authorities said they were investigating the incident and the country’s justice minister said he couldn’t rule out sabotage as a possible cause. The ICC in 2023 also reported a hack of its computer systems it believed was an attempt to spy on the institution. The global tribunal has recently come under scrutiny after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The U.S. Trump administration has slapped sanctions on the court’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan in response to the arrest warrants. Khan also lost access to his email provided by Microsoft in May, in an incident that has galvanized a political push in Europe to wean off American technology for critical communications.

The pro-Russia hacker group NoName057 carried out cyberattacks on Friday against the Flemish parliament website and several Belgian media outlets, including Belga News and De Standaard. “We continue to send DDoS greetings to Belgium,” said the pro-Russian collective on Telegram. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks aim to overwhelm servers with requests, rendering the websites unaccessible for some time. It is the fifth straight day of hacking activity against Belgium and it comes ahead of municipal elections on Sunday. “The analysis [of cybersecurity experts] is that these attacks cannot in any way interfere with the elections,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Tuesday during a plenary session. Flemish Minister of Home Affairs Hilde Crevits said the local elections can be organized safely because “the voting computers are not connected to the internet in any way and therefore cannot be hacked.” The hackers this week have attacked the websites of several Belgian municipalities, government and port websites, as well as banking services and the Center for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB). The CCB said the attacks are “not dangerous” and only represent an “inconvenience.” The hacker group reportedly said the spate of attacks are a response to Belgium’s continuing support to Ukraine and particularly its recent announcement that it will consider a proposal to purchase and transfer three Caesar howitzers to Kyiv. The pro-Russian group has been attacking the websites of Ukraine’s allies since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. “The Belgian government will soon be examining a proposal to purchase and transfer three Caesar artillery units to Ukraine,” the hacker group said on Telegram. “We have decided to pay a visit to Russophobic Belgium to show them how initiatives in support of the criminal regime in Kyiv end.” NoName057 also hinted at further disruption on the day of the elections by noting them on their account. “On Sunday 13 October, Belgium will hold important elections: citizens will elect their local councillors,” read the Telegram post.