TL;DR -I participated in Hack the Government 2025, a two-week bug bounty program with 71 ethical hackers testing Belgian government systems. It was about finding security gaps before the bad actors do.
Hack the Government 2025
On Wednesday 26th of November, Hack the Government 2025 came to an end. From November 12-26, I was part of a group of 71 ethical hackers, 39 of them students, searching for vulnerabilities in Belgian government systems. We tested the Ministry of Defence, federal police, and several other institutions.
The final day was on-site at Papier Quartier in Zaventem, where we could all work together and network. I even got interviewed for a news piece about the event. Walking around that day, it made sense why this matters. It was 71 people trying to find security gaps before someone malicious does. That’s really what it’s about.
I met forensics analysts, developers, and other students. Everyone was there because they care about security or wanted to learn. The conversations were good. People were asking real questions about how to approach problems and what techniques actually work.
Thanks to the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium for organizing this, and to everyone who participated and took it seriously.