Several Dutch universities and the government login service DigiD have recently been targeted with DDoS attacks. The connection between the incidents is not clear nor the culprit of the attacks have been published.
Last Friday, January 17th 2025, a major DDoS attack disrupted the joint network of Dutch universities, applied sciences universities, university hospitals, and research institutes, causing significant internet connectivity issues. This attack, which began around 8:20 a.m., affected institutions across the country and followed similar attacks earlier in the week that had already compromised the internet services of higher education institutions.
The fault-detection site Allestorningen reported widespread internet issues in student cities including Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen, Leiden, Tilburg, Utrecht, and Zwolle. The Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e), severely impacted by these disruptions, announced plans to resume classes after the weekend, with a commitment to catch up on the backlog over the coming weeks.
In a separate but equally disruptive incident, the DigiD system, essential for accessing a wide range of government services, fell victim to a large-scale DDoS attack on Tuesday, January 14th 2025. This attack targeted the company called Logius that manges the DigiD system, paralysing the Logius-managed servers for over five hours. The attack prevented access to critical services including the tax office, local government offices, and health insurers.
Both systems have been successfully restored from what was reported as exceptionally high-volume attack.
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