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IT problems paralyze Dutch coast guard, military, airport

August 28, 2024

In the Netherlands, an IT glitch affected operations at Eindhoven Airport and a number of government agencies, including the coast guard and military police.

https://p.dw.com/p/4k0FB
Parked aircraft at Eindhoven Airport, where a major glitch has grounded air traffic
At Eindhoven Airport, no flights will be possible until at least 17:00 local time on WednesdayImage: Rob Engelaar/ANP/IMAGO

A problem with IT networks in the Netherlands on Wednesday affected the Eindhoven Airport and several public services, including the coast guard and military police.

"Due to problems with IT-networks at the Ministery [sic] of Defense there is no air traffic possible at Eindhoven Airport at this moment," the second largest airport in the Netherlands wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Eindhoven Airport, the Netherlands' second-largest, shares its facilities with the Defense Ministry as a civilian co-user of the Eindhoven military airport.

The Dutch Defense Ministry also reported its disruption on Wednesday, citing an IT problem. "Employees are experiencing login problems and in some cases there is an impact on service provision because telephone numbers are not reachable," the ministry said in a statement.

Eindhoven Airport did not say what caused the problem, but in a statement on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the airport said there would be no air traffic until at least 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT). Meanwhile, the country's main airport, Schiphol near Amsterdam, appeared to be operating normally.

Airlines were trying to get passengers from Eindhoven to Düsseldorf airport in Germany to continue their journeys, local media reported.

A departure board showing that no flights are possible at Eindhoven Airport, where a major outage has paralyzed air traffic
The cause of the outage, which affected Eindhoven Airport and some other public services in the Netherlands, was not immediately clearImage: Rob Engelaar/ANP/IMAGO

What other services were affected by the outage?

Several other public services in the Netherlands appear to have been affected by the outage. Several government agencies, including the coast guard and the military police, which is responsible for border protection, reported computer failures.

They also use  the Defence Ministry's network for their IT systems 

The coast guard said in a statement that it was "not reachable" by phone or radio due to the outage. It urged people in an emergency situation to call 112. The military police's contact center was also unavailable, authorities said.

Dutch emergency services also experienced a nationwide outage that disrupted their usual alarm and communication system. However, they said national emergency numbers were still working.

It was not immediately clear if there was a connection between the disruptions.

Sources at the National Cybersecurity Center told local media outlet AD that there is no evidence yet of a cyberattack, but added that one outage could be contributing to the other.

Last month, airlines, banks, and media outlets around the world were thrown into chaos by one of the largest IT outages in recent years caused by an antivirus update.

Massive IT outage causes global chaos

dh/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)