Russian hackers accused of trying to meddle in the recent US elections have tried to infiltrate Dutch ministries among hundreds of cyberattacks ahead of next month’s polls here, reports said on Saturday.
Two Russian groups were behind phishing attempts to pinch the credentials of government workers, including at the prime minister’s office, the respected Volkskrant daily said.
Citing security experts, Volkskrant said the two groups were APT29 and APT28, which have links to the Russian government and were named by the FBI and US Homeland Security as being behind “malicious cyber activity” against US government bodies. 
Concerns over the security of Dutch computers and websites have been growing since the outcry erupted over US intelligence reports that Russia had interfered to help secure the election of US President Donald Trump. 
Dutch authorities announced on Wednesday that they were scrapping a decade-old computer system for the March 15 general elections and would count millions of votes by hand. 
Apart from Russia, China and Iran had also been behind some of the cyberattacks, the head of the Dutch secret service (AIVD) Rob Bertholee said in a television interview on Friday.

Source: Arab News