Virus found in PM’s office computers

Belgian experts investigating the security of the government's computer network discovered a virus in the offices of prime minister Elio Di Rupo, writes Reuters’ Claire Davenport. "A virus was detected on a number of computers of the federal office that was communicating with a server in Hong Kong," the premier's office said in a statement, adding that there was no evidence so far linking the attack to any culprit. The Belgian government said it had strengthened the security of the network and installed an extra virus detection system. It also said it plans to spend more on cyber security in 2014. Hackers sent emails from Di Rupo's personal account to De Morgen in May. The emails, dating from 2004 to 2008 when Di Rupo was president of the French-speaking socialist party and before he became prime minister in 2011, were mostly of a private nature, although some did refer to his political activities, the Flemish daily said at the time, while refusing to publish the emails. Separately, Belgium is investigating suspected foreign state espionage against its main telecoms company, Belgacom, the top carrier of voice traffic in Africa and the Middle East. The company filed a complaint that several of its servers and computers had been hacked.