Wallonia Partners with Proximus to Deliver Free Cybersecurity Training for Citizens
Namur, Wednesday 1 April 2026
With 73% of residents fearing online threats, Wallonia and Proximus are rolling out a pro bono cybersecurity training programme across 211 public spaces to protect 5,000 citizens.
Bridging the Digital Divide in Wallonia
On 31 March 2026, the Walloon Government and telecom giant Proximus officially signed the ‘Cybersecurity for Everyone’ partnership [1][3]. This initiative directly addresses findings from the Agence du Numérique’s ‘Baromètre 2025 de maturité numérique des citoyens wallons’, which exposed a concerning disparity between the widespread adoption of digital applications and the actual perception of online risks among the public [1][3]. Currently, 73% of Walloon citizens express anxiety regarding the security of their personal data and online applications [1][3]. Walloon Minister of Digital, Pierre-Yves Jeholet, emphasised that educating and protecting the public has become a fundamental necessity in the face of increasingly aggressive cyber threats [3].
The Escalating Phishing Threat and DNS Defences
The urgency of such educational initiatives is underscored by the sheer volume of cyber incidents across the Benelux region. According to Deloitte research, a staggering 91% of all cyberattacks are initiated via phishing messages [4]. In the neighbouring Netherlands, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) data revealed that in 2025, approximately 2.5 million citizens—representing 17% of the population—fell victim to online crime [4]. These figures highlight why reliance solely on human awareness is insufficient, prompting governments to implement scalable, software-driven defensive layers at the network level [GPT].
Cross-Border Inspiration and Corporate Responsibility
The architecture of the Dutch defensive shield draws heavy inspiration from the Belgium Anti-Phishing Shield (BAPS), a mature DNS-based filter that has been operational for several years [4]. Developed by the Centrum voor Cybersecurity België (CCB) in collaboration with major national providers including Proximus, Telenet, Orange, and Belnet, BAPS has demonstrated massive scalability [4]. In 2024 alone, the Belgian system redirected citizens away from malicious domains approximately 200 million times [4]. This cross-border knowledge transfer illustrates a growing consensus that national digital security requires robust public-private ecosystems [GPT].