In the Netherlands, a network outage at the Ministry of Defense on Wednesday led to significant IT failures across the country. Flights were grounded, civil servants faced computer issues, and police officers resorted to text messages for communication as a result of the outage.
The cause and full extent of the problems remain unknown, although a spokesperson for the Dutch defense ministry confirmed that the issue originated from one of their systems that is also utilized by other parts of the Dutch government.
The National Cybersecurity Center stated that it is currently uncertain whether the outage was due to a cyber attack. Travelers at Eindhoven Airport experienced flight cancellations from airlines like Ryanair and Transavia due to the grounding of air traffic caused by the outage.
While Eindhoven Airport also serves as a military base, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport did not report any issues. Some stranded passengers were transported by bus to Brussels Airport in Belgium.
Emergency services, including police and the Coast Guard, faced disruptions in their alarm and communication systems. Police officers relied on mobile phones and text messaging to maintain communication during the outage.
Hospitals, the tax office, and the national emergency number did not report any IT problems. Additionally, telecom company KPN experienced a significant mobile service outage; however, it was unclear if this issue was linked to the Ministry of Defense’s network problems.
The duration of the outage remained uncertain as the defense ministry worked to resolve the technical issues.
