tech
Brussels builds Europe’s most layered cyber awareness machine, from school workshops to 10M phishing reports a year
A dense network of EU institutions, national agencies and grassroots groups is turning the Belgian capital into a testbed for how to make digital safety stick.
How we reported this
Brussels has quietly built one of the most layered cybersecurity awareness ecosystems in Europe, and it starts with a website that 70 to 80 percent of Belgian adults already know.
Safeonweb.be, run by the Brussels-headquartered Centre for Cybersecurity (CCB), now receives roughly 10 million suspicious email reports annually, according to the agency. That volume gives Belgian authorities a real-time map of phishing campaigns hitting the country, data few other national cyber centres can match.
The awareness infrastructure doesn’t stop at reporting. DNS Belgium runs year-round campaigns including the #SafeNotSorry youth drive focused on password safety and targeted content for older adults on spotting shopping scams. The Belgian Cyber Security Coalition’s Awareness Focus Group, based in Brussels, organises plenary sessions, interactive workshops for schools and crisis-response simulations.
An October launch pad with EU backing
The 12th European Cybersecurity Month, with a theme centred on manipulative tactics such as phishing and social engineering, will hold its kick-off event in Brussels from October 2 to 4, 2025. The European Commission is supporting the event, which traditionally draws security officials from across member states and EU institutions.
Brussels already hosts major sector gatherings. The PATRICIA II tabletop exercise, held June 5, 2025, brought together EU bodies to test personal data breach awareness and incident handling. Next spring, the Cyber Intelligence Europe conference (April 22-23, 2026) will again convene security stakeholders in the city.
What sets Brussels apart is density. Within a few square kilometres, the CCB, DNS Belgium, the Cyber Security Coalition and multiple EU agencies all run parallel, and often overlapping, awareness programmes. The Coalition’s Awareness Focus Group collaborates annually with the CCB to develop Belgium’s national campaign, launched each October.
Turning awareness into habit
The CCB recommends practical steps that go beyond awareness: recognising phishing, enabling two-factor authentication, keeping software updated, maintaining backups and staying educated on emerging threats. Safeonweb.be serves as the central hub for these resources.
For younger audiences, DNS Belgium’s EDUbox Cybersecurity provides free teaching materials for secondary schools, while the #SafeNotSorry campaign pushes password hygiene. For older adults, the focus shifts to online shopping and payment security, two areas where scams cause the most financial harm.
The city’s tech ecosystem, which hosts roughly 30 percent of all Belgian startups (319 active as of 2024), adds another layer. With healthtech and fintech dominating, and investors pouring €330 million into Brussels digital startups in the first half of 2024 alone, there is growing demand for security-literate talent.
What happens next? The October kick-off will test whether the European Cybersecurity Month’s cross-border message lands in a city that already runs one of the continent’s most intensively local awareness machines. For now, the CCB keeps its reporting portal open, and Belgians keep sending those 10 million suspicious emails every year.