New government protocol aims to better protect Belgian internet users against cybercrime
The Federal Judicial Police (FGP), the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), and Belgian cybersecurity company Secutec are joining forces to put a stop to phishing. The “National Protocol for the Detection and Disruption of Phishing Threats” will automatically detect new malicious websites and warn internet users about phishing attempts. Phishing is increasingly driven by artificial intelligence and has become a major societal issue. In 2025, the CCB received approximately 10 million reports via verdacht@safeonweb.be, which resulted in around 200 million visits to malicious websites being prevented.
The National Protocol for the Detection and Disruption of Phishing Threats (Phish Nemo) was signed by Directors-General Laurent Blondiau (Federal Judicial Police) and Miguel De Bruycker (Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium), and by Secutec CEO Geert Baudewijns.
The government protocol builds on Phish Nemo, a project and application developed by the Federal Judicial Police of Limburg, which has been detecting and blocking phishing domain names since 2022. As part of the collaboration formalized today, the FGP will transfer the Phish Nemo application to the CCB. Through this, the partners aim to deploy the application on a larger scale within the Belgian cybersecurity ecosystem, with the support of Secutec.
Secutec will further integrate Phish Nemo with the CCB’s BAPS phishing database (Belgian Anti-Phishing Shield) to enable immediate updates. Until now, Secutec scanned the security certificates of suspicious websites and then manually added fraudulent addresses to the BAPS database. In addition to Phish Nemo, the CCB works with other trusted partners to continuously update the list.
The database is available to telecom operators, allowing them to automatically redirect users to a warning page when they attempt to visit a fraudulent or malicious website. This process could previously take several hours to several days. The fine-grained integration will therefore have an immediate and fundamental impact on cybersecurity in our country.
Finally, the protocol also formalizes the sharing of data related to malicious websites. In this way, the three partners aim to better map, analyze, and stop phishing criminals.
Collaboration as the key to success
With this protocol, the three partners clearly choose to proactively combat phishing and stop fraudulent campaigns before they create victims. This reduces the pressure on police and prosecutors, allowing more resources to be used to structurally dismantle criminal networks.
By combining the expertise of the Federal Judicial Police, the CCB, and Secutec, a strong approach becomes possible that integrates detection, data analysis, blocking, and judicial investigation. The Federal Police is convinced that national collaboration with partners strengthens the effective fight against online crime.
About Phish Nemo
The Phish Nemo project was launched in 2022 by the Datalab team of the Federal Judicial Police of Limburg. Their goal was clear: prevent phishing by detecting malicious websites at the moment of creation, whereas investigations previously could only begin after a formal complaint. Today, the collected data is used to identify cybercriminals or fraudulent networks more quickly. Since 2022, 1,600 malicious sites have been blocked at an early stage thanks to Phish Nemo, over 120,000 potential victims have been protected, and the information has led to several concrete judicial investigations and arrests.
For its innovative approach, Phish Nemo received the Best Innovative Project Award at the Circle of Police Leadership (CPL) in 2024 and the Best Innovative Proposal award from Europol EC3 in 2025.