The reason for the giant computer outage is not yet clearly known

2024-08-29 05:36:44

Travelers wait at Eindhoven airport, as a computer outage affects the local airport and several public services including the coast guard and military police in the Netherlands, in Eindhoven on August 28, 2024. ROB ENGELAAR/AFP

Government and civil services, the chamber of representatives, the gendarmerie, the coast guard, the vaccination centers, the planes were grounded for several hours, until the evening, at Eindhoven airport where thousands of passengers organization has become: Netherlands Bas experienced a dark day on Thursday August 28 due to a computer failure that started on Tuesday evening and the reason for which is not yet clearly known. The national police are able to resort to a “plan B”, including the use of mobile phones.

The problem is believed to have arisen from a disruption and improper update on the Military Fiber Optic Network (NAFIN), on which the C2000 emergency communications system used by many official services depends. A large number of them use this channel with its complex tower, equipped with a central center and fourteen branches, to exchange confidential information.

However, the authorities refused to confirm that the C2000 was indeed the cause of the problems encountered on Wednesday in half of the government. The impact on the Einhoven airport – while the Amsterdam-Schiphol airport is not affected – can be explained by the fact that it has a military wing and that civilian traffic is subject to joint air control with the army.

The central role of the Ministry of Defense

The Ministry of Defense, which will be at the origin of this major disruption, confirmed on Thursday evening that it will provide more information when it has it. “perfect vision” of the problem. After hesitation, the authorities, on their part, judged the myth of a heinous act. Many information technology experts, who quickly assess the characteristics of failure, also rule the concept of sabotage. “A hacker with access to such a sensitive network will not cause the system to crash but will rather check its contents”confided Wednesday to the Dutch daily NRC Mendel Mobach, a cybersecurity expert.

David van Weel, the Minister of Justice, judged that the country should undoubtedly apply to such failures, “The question is how fast can we do it”, he added. Prime Minister Dick Schoof, for his part, spoke about a situation “Very generous” but, according to him, it is impossible to prevent it completely.

A statement that earned him criticism from socialists and environmentalists: “No, you don’t have to settle but make sure you are resilient and independent”wrote MP Songül Mutluer on X. Like many others, the country has already been the victim, last month, of a gigantic outage caused by the update of the Falcon Sensor antivirus system, software developed by the American cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.