After copies of data relating to 31,000 legal entities were unlawfully taken, the register has been temporarily closed for external users. The government said there were no signs that data had been modified or deleted.

The government in Liechtenstein is racing to establish the extent of damage caused by an attack on beneficial ownership data held in the tiny European state. Copies of data covering around 31,000 legal entities have been taken.

“The Register of Beneficial Owners (VwbP) has been the target of a cyberattack,” the government said yesterday. The administration has formed a crisis unit.  

“Copies of data relating to around 31,000 legal entities were unlawfully exfiltrated,” it said in a statement. “As a result of the incident, the register is not available to external users via the llv.li website for the time being. According to the current state of knowledge, there are no indications that data in the system was modified or deleted.”

The attack is an example of how cross-border financial centres that are used by wealthy individuals, companies and other institutions to hold wealth are in the cybersecurity firing line. 

The register, aka VwbP, is “maintained for the purpose of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing,” the government statement said. The register holds data on the beneficial owners of legal entities that include companies, foundations, and trusts. 

The government in Vaduz said that based in preliminary findings, unknown perpetrators gained unlawful access to the VwbP by digital means during the night of 29/30 July 2026. During 30 July, “irregularities were noticed at the Office of Justice.”

“The Office of Information Technology was subsequently contacted to analyse the situation. Based on the initial suspicion, the Office of Information Technology immediately implemented measures to secure the data and took the affected system offline,” the government statement said. 

The government said it has started checks into what had happened. On Friday 31 July, the government said it was told that a potentially successful attack on the VwbP had taken place. On the afternoon of 1 August 2026, the first confirmed results of the preliminary investigations were transmitted to the government.

The government convened a crisis unit on Saturday evening, which began its work immediately, and formally confirmed it the following day. Prime Minister Brigitte Haas and Minister of Justice Emanuel Schädler are heading the unit. 

The Act on the Register of the Beneficial Owners of Legal Entities (VwbPG) entered into force in 2021, implementing the requirements of the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

Registers in focus
“Under the digital trust model taking shape in Europe, the registry stops being a noticeboard we query and becomes the authentic source, a body that can sign a statement about who owns and controls a company, which thousands of institutions then rely on,” Steve Lamb, CEO of Kyckr, a firm providing live access official company registers, said in an emailed comment to WealthBriefing. “Once that happens, the security of the source underpins the security of the whole chain, and an authentic source that can be compromised doesn’t inspire much confidence. The debate can’t only be about standards, schemas and interoperability. Registries are becoming critical financial infrastructure, and they should be resourced like it.”

The digital trust model Lamb cited is called the European Business Wallet, eIDAS 2.0.

The government statement noted that the attack on the VwbP constitutes a personal data breach under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules.

(Editor’s comment: These are early days, so jumping to conclusions is unwise. This news service has regularly, as here, commented on the tensions between providing registers of beneficial ownership in the name of transparency, and the threat to legitimate privacy. Cyber attacks and the advent of AI have raised the stakes.)