Imagine trying to file your taxes or access your medical records, only to find the system completely down. That’s what happened with DigiD, the Dutch government’s login system. Twice.
A large DDoS attack disrupted the service in the first week of March, leaving a lot of people unable to use important online services. It wasn’t just tax forms; things like medical portals and even paying traffic fines were affected. Plus, MijnOverheid, where people keep track of their government admin, was also hit hard.
Within the first hour of the outage, over a thousand individuals reported issues on the downtime monitoring website AlleStoringen. The Belastingdienst, the country’s Tax and Customs Office, received several thousand complaints about access issues, exacerbated by the fact that Monday marked the first full working day for annual income tax return filings and digital payroll submissions.
The affected systems included BSNk (Burger Service Nummer-koppelregister), DigiD Machtigen, Digipoort Services, and Machtigen en Mededelen. Logius, the Dutch government’s digital service provider, is actively investigating the incident and working to mitigate the DDoS attacks. Authorities are striving to restore full functionality to DigiD, DigiD Machtigen, BSNk, Digipoort, and MijnOverheid, which were only partially available during the outage.
This incident is not isolated. Just six weeks ago, a similar disruption linked to a DDoS attack led to network overload. The latest incident followed a weekend of heavy traffic that had already strained access to the Belastingdienst’s tax filing system for 2024 income declarations. These repeated DDoS attacks against critical digital infrastructure underscore the need for effective cybersecurity measures in the Netherlands’ public service systems.
As reliance on digital platforms for government, healthcare, and financial services continues to grow, strong cybersecurity measures become increasingly important. Authorities have not yet provided a timeline for when all affected services will be fully restored. Residents are advised to monitor official channels for updates and expect potential delays in accessing critical online services.
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