Headlines July
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Major fire at transport company in Almelo, expansion to office buildings
A large fire broke out at a transport company on an industrial estate in Almelo at the end of the afternoon. The fire brigade has now given the signal that the fire is under control; two fire engines are still working on extinguishing the fire. There were no injuries and everyone is safely outside. The fire department suspects that the fire started in the workshop of refrigerated and frozen transport company Dasko. The building threatened to go up in flames tonight, regional broadcaster Oost writes . The fire has now been scaled down to a medium fire. "Part of the building has already been lost," says a spokesperson for the fire department. The fire department tried to prevent the spread to the company's adjacent office building as much as possible. "But there will undoubtedly be damage there too. The fire department was able to remove some of the owners' belongings from the office building."
Doors closed
The large black clouds of smoke can be seen in the wide area. The smoke is subsiding and therefore residents of Almelo and Albergen are advised to keep their windows and doors closed and to turn off the ventilation. The fire department has deployed a drone to find the fires from above. "That's what we're focusing on now," the spokesperson said. According to her, there were still a few fires in the building around 8:00 p.m. The fire department warns bystanders to stay out of the smoke. The police keep them hundreds of meters away.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2527452-grote-brand-bij-transportbedrijf-in-almelo-uitbreiding-naar-kantoorgebouwen
Schoolbook provider Iddink hit by data breach again
Schoolbook supplier Iddink in Gelderland has again been hit by a data leak, according to ICT cooperative for education SIVON. In the process for students to submit textbooks, a link is used to log in to Iddink. This link, which had been sent via e-mail to pupils of schools in the south holiday region, was easily modified allowing access to data of other pupils from all over the Netherlands. This included name, street name, postcode and place of residence, school information and textbooks for school year 2023-2024. Most of this data was also compromised in the ransomware attack on Iddink that took place earlier this year. ‘Iddink has since updated this link and method of operation which has fixed this vulnerability.’
According to Iddink, the vulnerability was exploited, but no data was automatically downloaded. ‘A number of reports are known from parents who have seen and tested this vulnerability. Even though the impact of the data breach seems limited and involves a small set of personal data, there is (has been) a risk to the data protection of data subjects,’ SIVON informed. The textbook supplier will come up with more information on what happened to the data once the investigation is complete.
SIVON reports that Iddink does not rate the risk of data misuse as high. ‘This means that under the AVG, schools are not obliged to inform data subjects about the data breach. If the school does not inform data subjects about the data breach, this must be chosen as an option in the AP's data breach notification, explaining why data subjects are not informed. If the school wants to wait before choosing to inform data subjects, the advice is to report the data breach to the AP for the time being.’
Source: https://www.security.nl/posting/848820/Schoolboekenleverancier+Iddink+opnieuw+getroffen+door+datalek?channel=twitter
Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority imposes export ban on Vion headquarters
Vion can no longer export to third countries outside the European Union from its headquarters in Boxtel for the time being. NVWA provisionally suspended the licence on Wednesday 3 July. Vion said in a reaction that it was very surprised. The NVWA took this step following a regular inspection at the end of last week. Observations were made at the time based on matters observed. Both Vion and the NVWA will not reveal what exactly was lacking. However, the meat group does say that adequate measures were taken immediately.
However, this did not prevent the NVWA from withdrawing the licence to export to countries outside the European Union a few days later. It is not known for how long the licence expired. However, Vion says it is very surprised and is also in talks with the regulator.
Loss
It is a loss for Vion that it cannot export pig parts from Boxtel to overseas destinations such as China, Japan and South Korea for the time being. Some 90,000 pigs are slaughtered every week at the main site. Selling pig parts outside Europe may not be as lucrative as it was a few years ago, but the yield per fattening pig is still easily €20.
Source: https://www.foodpro-network.nl/nieuws/16975/nvwa-legt-hoofdvestiging-vion-exportverbod-op
Major data leak of 50 million documents, still needs a year and a half to resolve
The province of South Holland thinks it will need another year and a half to get its internal information security in order. South Holland is under increased supervision of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), after a data leak in an internal system was discovered by an employee in September last year. The internal system in question contains approximately 50 million documents . According to the province, it is 'a huge task' and 'a labor-intensive process' to close the data leak and to ensure that cybersecurity is at the minimum required level.
The Christian Union had submitted written questions about the case, which came out this spring . In the answers, the province states that it aims to meet the AP requirement on 1 January 2026, namely that South Holland will be at step 3 (of 5) of the 'GDPR maturity level'. Until then, South Holland will be under increased supervision.
'Not at all reassured'
'AP understands that an organization may need some time to reach an adequate privacy maturity level. At the same time, the AP will not accept it if progress is not shown in the short term,' says a spokesperson for the privacy watchdog. Steven Datema of the Christian Union in South Holland says he is 'not at all reassured'. 'I understand that you can't break iron with your hands. But waiting another year and a half before data protection is at the acceptable minimum level is really too long. People must be able to trust that their personal data is safe with the province'
Advice not followed
The GDPR compliance officer had already advised in 2019 to ensure that the 'roles and rights' in the outdated system are in order and to replace this system in the long term.
South Holland acknowledges that much advice in this area has not been adequately followed in recent years. The province has reserved 23 million euros for an 'information transition'.
Source: https://www.omroepwest.nl/nieuws/4857035/groot-datalek-van-50-miljoen-documenten-nog-anderhalf-jaar-nodig-om-op-te-lossen
Dangerous staff shortage in environmental services in Overijssel
"If there are insufficient checks, there is a chance that more will be discharged"
Environmental services are not able to carry out sufficient checks in Overijssel, mainly due to a lack of qualified personnel. As a result, a number of environmental services are not meeting the mandate they receive from municipalities and provinces. This is evident from an analysis of the annual accounts of 29 environmental services by Oost in collaboration with regional broadcasters and the NOS.
The environmental services in Overijssel also face staff shortages. Experienced supervisors left the IJsselland Environmental Service and the Twente Environmental Service had too few lawyers, resulting in fewer enforcement checks.
What do environmental services do?
Environmental services are responsible for issuing permits, supervision and enforcement. They monitor compliance with environmental regulations at high-risk companies that work with hazardous substances. They also monitor discharges of PFAS, for example, the remediation of asbestos and environmental regulations in the construction and agricultural sectors.
In order to deliver as much work as possible and to reduce the workload of employees, the environmental services hired many external specialists, which led to high costs. Nevertheless, the environmental services did not meet all agreements. The IJsselland Environmental Service provided 91 percent of the planned hours. The annual report explains that some of the work can be planned, but a large part of the work also depends on the demand of the environment. For example, the "large number of complaints about specific companies" resulted in "greater hours than expected."
Danger to public health
"It's an unpleasant situation," says environmental chemist Chiel Jonker of Utrecht University. According to him, inspections by environmental services have a deterrent effect. "The industry is allowed to discharge certain quantities of substances. If there are insufficient inspections, there is a chance that more will be discharged."
According to Jonker, it is precisely the shortages of specialists that are worrying. "If you do not know what substances they are due to insufficient knowledge, you cannot properly assess the risks or you do not know what you could check extra for." These risks also concern substances that can enter our bodies via the environment, he warns. "Via drinking water and eating vegetables, fruit and animal products, including fish."
Risk
The Twente Environmental Service delivered less than requested in the area of enforcement and supervision. The periodic inspections at companies have not all been carried out. The environmental service is doing everything it can to catch up on these inspections, says director Jan Willem Strebus of Twente Environmental Service. In addition, the environmental service works risk-oriented. This means that large companies, where violations have major consequences for the environment, are checked. According to him, this ensures that "the risk you run is not enormous" and that this does not lead to major damage. Environmental service IJsselland uses the same method, they "prioritize the companies with the greatest environmental risks from a supervisory perspective."
Backlogs
Provinces and municipalities are legally required to create rules to ensure the quality of their work. This concerns the level of education, work experience of employees and how often certain activities are performed. The environmental services IJsselland and Twente train people internally with a traineeship. They do this to reduce staff shortages and to keep specialist knowledge in-house. The experienced employees transfer their specialist knowledge to these trainees. In addition to the traineeship, the environmental services try to attract new employees in various ways, for example with a company film and recruitment. These efforts have resulted in many new employees being hired. Nevertheless, the annual reports state that not all positions have been filled and the backlog has not yet been fully caught up. At the IJsselland Environmental Service, "the backlog has not yet been sufficiently caught up". And the Twente Environmental Service states that there is "a structurally high backlog".
The director of Omgevingsdienst Twente states that "if you do this occasionally, that is possible, but it should not be a structural situation. With the resources we had, we were able to do what we had to do, but it was meager."
Fragmentation of services
The environmental service expects to be able to perform the tasks at the required level this year, because the budget has been increased. This happened after they had research done into the minimum level of what the environmental service must perform. "We came up against the fact that the municipalities had contributed less capacity than was necessary for the size of the business base."
In 2021, a committee led by VVD prominent Jozias van Aartsen wrote a critical report on the quality of environmental services. Van Aartsen recognizes the conclusions from the research by regional broadcasters and NOS, and attributes the shortages to, among other things, the fragmentation of the services. "There are now too many environmental services to employ sufficient specialists everywhere," he says. "We have advised using a lower limit for the size of an environmental service."
Internal training
Despite repeated requests, umbrella organisation Omgevingsdienst NL does not want to respond to specific questions from regional broadcasters and NOS. In a general statement, the umbrella organisation states that it "observes from the stories of its members that it is less easy to find qualified, specialist employees in this day and age. Sometimes it takes longer than desired to fill vacancies".
This applies to many of these services. The environmental services are currently trying to solve this problem by training people internally, the umbrella organization continues. "Omgevingsdienst NL invests in education and training with the ODNL academy. The environmental services see the importance and invest in colleagues and training new employees themselves."
NOS and regional broadcasters have repeatedly asked umbrella organisation Omgevingsdienst NL for answers to substantive questions. The organisation has chosen to only issue a statement and not to respond to the questions.
Source: https://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/2416432/gevaarlijk-personeelstekort-omgevingsdiensten-overijssel-bij-onvoldoende-controles-kans-dat-er-meer-geloosd-wordt
Dutch people not well prepared for disruption or disaster, 'must become more resilient'
Hospitals that had to cancel operations, flights that were canceled and public transportation that was completely disrupted: problems arose all over the world due to the error in a software update from security company Crowdstrike. Major outages like the one that happened last week are exceptional, but we live in a digital world, so when things go wrong, they go really wrong. And according to experts, we are not well prepared for that. This time it was airports, hospitals and communication systems. Next time it could be water purification, electricity or payment transactions. It is important to prepare for a possible blackout, warns National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg.
Talk to your neighbors
"Suppose all the power goes out and it's pitch black, what do you do? Do you have an emergency kit with candles, water, batteries and cash? Those certainties make you more resilient," says Aalbersberg. "Also think about what you depend on and see if you'll get into trouble if you can't leave the house for a while and can't get groceries." According to the NCTV, it is also good to talk about it with others, with your neighbors for example. "Is there perhaps someone who needs a lot of care and how can you support that person as a neighborhood, if necessary?"
The Red Cross also believes that the Dutch should think more carefully about what to do in the event of a major outage. "We think it's a distant issue, but last week it turned out not to be," says Nicole van Batenburg of the Red Cross. It is relatively easy to prepare yourself well for a malfunction or disaster, she explains. "Write down phone numbers, make copies of your important documents and of course make sure you have that emergency kit and enough water. For example, drinking water becomes contaminated during a flood."
Wake-up call
According to the NCTV, as a country we put a lot of energy into protecting systems, but we must also focus on a plan B. "The threat is increasing, especially with all the conflicts of today, and attacks on digital systems are becoming more real. Last week's outage was a wake-up call, we really need to become more resilient. That does not mean preventing something from happening, but above all ensuring that society can continue to function."
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2530291-nederlanders-niet-goed-voorbereid-op-storing-of-ramp-moeten-weerbaarder-worden
You've probably read about it, heard about it or been greatly inconvenienced by it yourself. Here is an overview of the problems caused by the outage in the Netherlands.
Worldwide problems due to computer failure: airports and hospitals among others affected
Computer outages are occurring all over the world. These are caused by problems at the American cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. The outage is affecting airports all over the world, preventing aircraft from taking off or landing. Baggage handling and check-in are problematic in many places. Schiphol Airport has also been affected. The problems only occur with Windows computers. After an update, they show a blue screen, a so-called Blue Screen of Death, after which they cannot boot. The CEO of software supplier Crowdstrike writes on X that the problem causing the malfunction has now been "identified and isolated". According to him, there is no question of a cyber attack or a security problem.
Hospitals affected
This morning just before 09:00 the first reports came from companies and organisations that were in trouble because of the outage. For example, the Scheperziekenhuis in Emmen had to cancel all operations. Also, the emergency department in Emmen and basic emergency posts in Hoogeveen and Stadskanaal were temporarily not receiving people. Around 11:45 the outage in those hospitals was resolved. Also in the Slingeland Hospital, in the Achterhoek, care was scaled down. The hospital now reports that it has managed to fix the malfunction and that care is being restarted in a "controlled" manner. However, only patients with life-threatening complaints are being admitted to the emergency department for the time being.
Busy due to summer holidays
At Schiphol, the disruption is very inconvenient, because from today all schools have summer vacation and therefore a lot of crowds are expected. According to a spokesperson, 200,000 travelers are supposed to travel via Schiphol today. The impact is therefore great. A spokesperson for KLM says that due to the disruption it is not possible to handle flights. "We realize that this, especially considering the summer vacation, is extremely annoying for our customers." Travelers are waiting in long lines at Schiphol to check in. The fire department hands out bottles of water. The airport advises travelers to contact their airline before coming to the airport. A spokesperson for Transavia also confirmed that the disruption is impacting the company's flights. "This will be a messy day." He has no advice for travelers or an idea of how long the disruption will last.
Public transport also affected
Public transport in the Netherlands is also experiencing problems in several places. Regional transporter Keolis says that there are no buses running in the province of Utrecht and the regions of Amersfoort and Almere. The buses can still drive, but due to the computer failure, drivers cannot contact the emergency center. "We want to guarantee safety on the road, which is why we have decided not to let the buses drive now," says a spokesperson. As a precaution, no buses are running in Almere either. The NS and ProRail say that they are not experiencing any inconvenience due to the disruption.
The site allestoringen.nl also reports hundreds of outages at sites such as the UWV, the bank KNAB and Microsoft. The UWV website was unavailable for a number of hours. The site is now back online, but logging in is not yet possible.
Source: https://nos.nl/liveblog/2529468-drukte-op-luchthavens-groeit-bussen-uitgevallen-operaties-geschrapt
A large fire broke out at a transport company on an industrial estate in Almelo at the end of the afternoon. The fire brigade has now given the signal that the fire is under control; two fire engines are still working on extinguishing the fire. There were no injuries and everyone is safely outside. The fire department suspects that the fire started in the workshop of refrigerated and frozen transport company Dasko. The building threatened to go up in flames tonight, regional broadcaster Oost writes . The fire has now been scaled down to a medium fire. "Part of the building has already been lost," says a spokesperson for the fire department. The fire department tried to prevent the spread to the company's adjacent office building as much as possible. "But there will undoubtedly be damage there too. The fire department was able to remove some of the owners' belongings from the office building."
Doors closed
The large black clouds of smoke can be seen in the wide area. The smoke is subsiding and therefore residents of Almelo and Albergen are advised to keep their windows and doors closed and to turn off the ventilation. The fire department has deployed a drone to find the fires from above. "That's what we're focusing on now," the spokesperson said. According to her, there were still a few fires in the building around 8:00 p.m. The fire department warns bystanders to stay out of the smoke. The police keep them hundreds of meters away.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2527452-grote-brand-bij-transportbedrijf-in-almelo-uitbreiding-naar-kantoorgebouwen
Schoolbook provider Iddink hit by data breach again
Schoolbook supplier Iddink in Gelderland has again been hit by a data leak, according to ICT cooperative for education SIVON. In the process for students to submit textbooks, a link is used to log in to Iddink. This link, which had been sent via e-mail to pupils of schools in the south holiday region, was easily modified allowing access to data of other pupils from all over the Netherlands. This included name, street name, postcode and place of residence, school information and textbooks for school year 2023-2024. Most of this data was also compromised in the ransomware attack on Iddink that took place earlier this year. ‘Iddink has since updated this link and method of operation which has fixed this vulnerability.’
According to Iddink, the vulnerability was exploited, but no data was automatically downloaded. ‘A number of reports are known from parents who have seen and tested this vulnerability. Even though the impact of the data breach seems limited and involves a small set of personal data, there is (has been) a risk to the data protection of data subjects,’ SIVON informed. The textbook supplier will come up with more information on what happened to the data once the investigation is complete.
SIVON reports that Iddink does not rate the risk of data misuse as high. ‘This means that under the AVG, schools are not obliged to inform data subjects about the data breach. If the school does not inform data subjects about the data breach, this must be chosen as an option in the AP's data breach notification, explaining why data subjects are not informed. If the school wants to wait before choosing to inform data subjects, the advice is to report the data breach to the AP for the time being.’
Source: https://www.security.nl/posting/848820/Schoolboekenleverancier+Iddink+opnieuw+getroffen+door+datalek?channel=twitter
Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority imposes export ban on Vion headquarters
Vion can no longer export to third countries outside the European Union from its headquarters in Boxtel for the time being. NVWA provisionally suspended the licence on Wednesday 3 July. Vion said in a reaction that it was very surprised. The NVWA took this step following a regular inspection at the end of last week. Observations were made at the time based on matters observed. Both Vion and the NVWA will not reveal what exactly was lacking. However, the meat group does say that adequate measures were taken immediately.
However, this did not prevent the NVWA from withdrawing the licence to export to countries outside the European Union a few days later. It is not known for how long the licence expired. However, Vion says it is very surprised and is also in talks with the regulator.
Loss
It is a loss for Vion that it cannot export pig parts from Boxtel to overseas destinations such as China, Japan and South Korea for the time being. Some 90,000 pigs are slaughtered every week at the main site. Selling pig parts outside Europe may not be as lucrative as it was a few years ago, but the yield per fattening pig is still easily €20.
Source: https://www.foodpro-network.nl/nieuws/16975/nvwa-legt-hoofdvestiging-vion-exportverbod-op
Major data leak of 50 million documents, still needs a year and a half to resolve
The province of South Holland thinks it will need another year and a half to get its internal information security in order. South Holland is under increased supervision of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), after a data leak in an internal system was discovered by an employee in September last year. The internal system in question contains approximately 50 million documents . According to the province, it is 'a huge task' and 'a labor-intensive process' to close the data leak and to ensure that cybersecurity is at the minimum required level.
The Christian Union had submitted written questions about the case, which came out this spring . In the answers, the province states that it aims to meet the AP requirement on 1 January 2026, namely that South Holland will be at step 3 (of 5) of the 'GDPR maturity level'. Until then, South Holland will be under increased supervision.
'Not at all reassured'
'AP understands that an organization may need some time to reach an adequate privacy maturity level. At the same time, the AP will not accept it if progress is not shown in the short term,' says a spokesperson for the privacy watchdog. Steven Datema of the Christian Union in South Holland says he is 'not at all reassured'. 'I understand that you can't break iron with your hands. But waiting another year and a half before data protection is at the acceptable minimum level is really too long. People must be able to trust that their personal data is safe with the province'
Advice not followed
The GDPR compliance officer had already advised in 2019 to ensure that the 'roles and rights' in the outdated system are in order and to replace this system in the long term.
South Holland acknowledges that much advice in this area has not been adequately followed in recent years. The province has reserved 23 million euros for an 'information transition'.
Source: https://www.omroepwest.nl/nieuws/4857035/groot-datalek-van-50-miljoen-documenten-nog-anderhalf-jaar-nodig-om-op-te-lossen
Dangerous staff shortage in environmental services in Overijssel
"If there are insufficient checks, there is a chance that more will be discharged"
Environmental services are not able to carry out sufficient checks in Overijssel, mainly due to a lack of qualified personnel. As a result, a number of environmental services are not meeting the mandate they receive from municipalities and provinces. This is evident from an analysis of the annual accounts of 29 environmental services by Oost in collaboration with regional broadcasters and the NOS.
The environmental services in Overijssel also face staff shortages. Experienced supervisors left the IJsselland Environmental Service and the Twente Environmental Service had too few lawyers, resulting in fewer enforcement checks.
What do environmental services do?
Environmental services are responsible for issuing permits, supervision and enforcement. They monitor compliance with environmental regulations at high-risk companies that work with hazardous substances. They also monitor discharges of PFAS, for example, the remediation of asbestos and environmental regulations in the construction and agricultural sectors.
In order to deliver as much work as possible and to reduce the workload of employees, the environmental services hired many external specialists, which led to high costs. Nevertheless, the environmental services did not meet all agreements. The IJsselland Environmental Service provided 91 percent of the planned hours. The annual report explains that some of the work can be planned, but a large part of the work also depends on the demand of the environment. For example, the "large number of complaints about specific companies" resulted in "greater hours than expected."
Danger to public health
"It's an unpleasant situation," says environmental chemist Chiel Jonker of Utrecht University. According to him, inspections by environmental services have a deterrent effect. "The industry is allowed to discharge certain quantities of substances. If there are insufficient inspections, there is a chance that more will be discharged."
According to Jonker, it is precisely the shortages of specialists that are worrying. "If you do not know what substances they are due to insufficient knowledge, you cannot properly assess the risks or you do not know what you could check extra for." These risks also concern substances that can enter our bodies via the environment, he warns. "Via drinking water and eating vegetables, fruit and animal products, including fish."
Risk
The Twente Environmental Service delivered less than requested in the area of enforcement and supervision. The periodic inspections at companies have not all been carried out. The environmental service is doing everything it can to catch up on these inspections, says director Jan Willem Strebus of Twente Environmental Service. In addition, the environmental service works risk-oriented. This means that large companies, where violations have major consequences for the environment, are checked. According to him, this ensures that "the risk you run is not enormous" and that this does not lead to major damage. Environmental service IJsselland uses the same method, they "prioritize the companies with the greatest environmental risks from a supervisory perspective."
Backlogs
Provinces and municipalities are legally required to create rules to ensure the quality of their work. This concerns the level of education, work experience of employees and how often certain activities are performed. The environmental services IJsselland and Twente train people internally with a traineeship. They do this to reduce staff shortages and to keep specialist knowledge in-house. The experienced employees transfer their specialist knowledge to these trainees. In addition to the traineeship, the environmental services try to attract new employees in various ways, for example with a company film and recruitment. These efforts have resulted in many new employees being hired. Nevertheless, the annual reports state that not all positions have been filled and the backlog has not yet been fully caught up. At the IJsselland Environmental Service, "the backlog has not yet been sufficiently caught up". And the Twente Environmental Service states that there is "a structurally high backlog".
The director of Omgevingsdienst Twente states that "if you do this occasionally, that is possible, but it should not be a structural situation. With the resources we had, we were able to do what we had to do, but it was meager."
Fragmentation of services
The environmental service expects to be able to perform the tasks at the required level this year, because the budget has been increased. This happened after they had research done into the minimum level of what the environmental service must perform. "We came up against the fact that the municipalities had contributed less capacity than was necessary for the size of the business base."
In 2021, a committee led by VVD prominent Jozias van Aartsen wrote a critical report on the quality of environmental services. Van Aartsen recognizes the conclusions from the research by regional broadcasters and NOS, and attributes the shortages to, among other things, the fragmentation of the services. "There are now too many environmental services to employ sufficient specialists everywhere," he says. "We have advised using a lower limit for the size of an environmental service."
Internal training
Despite repeated requests, umbrella organisation Omgevingsdienst NL does not want to respond to specific questions from regional broadcasters and NOS. In a general statement, the umbrella organisation states that it "observes from the stories of its members that it is less easy to find qualified, specialist employees in this day and age. Sometimes it takes longer than desired to fill vacancies".
This applies to many of these services. The environmental services are currently trying to solve this problem by training people internally, the umbrella organization continues. "Omgevingsdienst NL invests in education and training with the ODNL academy. The environmental services see the importance and invest in colleagues and training new employees themselves."
NOS and regional broadcasters have repeatedly asked umbrella organisation Omgevingsdienst NL for answers to substantive questions. The organisation has chosen to only issue a statement and not to respond to the questions.
Source: https://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/2416432/gevaarlijk-personeelstekort-omgevingsdiensten-overijssel-bij-onvoldoende-controles-kans-dat-er-meer-geloosd-wordt
Dutch people not well prepared for disruption or disaster, 'must become more resilient'
Hospitals that had to cancel operations, flights that were canceled and public transportation that was completely disrupted: problems arose all over the world due to the error in a software update from security company Crowdstrike. Major outages like the one that happened last week are exceptional, but we live in a digital world, so when things go wrong, they go really wrong. And according to experts, we are not well prepared for that. This time it was airports, hospitals and communication systems. Next time it could be water purification, electricity or payment transactions. It is important to prepare for a possible blackout, warns National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg.
Talk to your neighbors
"Suppose all the power goes out and it's pitch black, what do you do? Do you have an emergency kit with candles, water, batteries and cash? Those certainties make you more resilient," says Aalbersberg. "Also think about what you depend on and see if you'll get into trouble if you can't leave the house for a while and can't get groceries." According to the NCTV, it is also good to talk about it with others, with your neighbors for example. "Is there perhaps someone who needs a lot of care and how can you support that person as a neighborhood, if necessary?"
The Red Cross also believes that the Dutch should think more carefully about what to do in the event of a major outage. "We think it's a distant issue, but last week it turned out not to be," says Nicole van Batenburg of the Red Cross. It is relatively easy to prepare yourself well for a malfunction or disaster, she explains. "Write down phone numbers, make copies of your important documents and of course make sure you have that emergency kit and enough water. For example, drinking water becomes contaminated during a flood."
Wake-up call
According to the NCTV, as a country we put a lot of energy into protecting systems, but we must also focus on a plan B. "The threat is increasing, especially with all the conflicts of today, and attacks on digital systems are becoming more real. Last week's outage was a wake-up call, we really need to become more resilient. That does not mean preventing something from happening, but above all ensuring that society can continue to function."
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2530291-nederlanders-niet-goed-voorbereid-op-storing-of-ramp-moeten-weerbaarder-worden
You've probably read about it, heard about it or been greatly inconvenienced by it yourself. Here is an overview of the problems caused by the outage in the Netherlands.
Worldwide problems due to computer failure: airports and hospitals among others affected
Computer outages are occurring all over the world. These are caused by problems at the American cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. The outage is affecting airports all over the world, preventing aircraft from taking off or landing. Baggage handling and check-in are problematic in many places. Schiphol Airport has also been affected. The problems only occur with Windows computers. After an update, they show a blue screen, a so-called Blue Screen of Death, after which they cannot boot. The CEO of software supplier Crowdstrike writes on X that the problem causing the malfunction has now been "identified and isolated". According to him, there is no question of a cyber attack or a security problem.
Hospitals affected
This morning just before 09:00 the first reports came from companies and organisations that were in trouble because of the outage. For example, the Scheperziekenhuis in Emmen had to cancel all operations. Also, the emergency department in Emmen and basic emergency posts in Hoogeveen and Stadskanaal were temporarily not receiving people. Around 11:45 the outage in those hospitals was resolved. Also in the Slingeland Hospital, in the Achterhoek, care was scaled down. The hospital now reports that it has managed to fix the malfunction and that care is being restarted in a "controlled" manner. However, only patients with life-threatening complaints are being admitted to the emergency department for the time being.
Busy due to summer holidays
At Schiphol, the disruption is very inconvenient, because from today all schools have summer vacation and therefore a lot of crowds are expected. According to a spokesperson, 200,000 travelers are supposed to travel via Schiphol today. The impact is therefore great. A spokesperson for KLM says that due to the disruption it is not possible to handle flights. "We realize that this, especially considering the summer vacation, is extremely annoying for our customers." Travelers are waiting in long lines at Schiphol to check in. The fire department hands out bottles of water. The airport advises travelers to contact their airline before coming to the airport. A spokesperson for Transavia also confirmed that the disruption is impacting the company's flights. "This will be a messy day." He has no advice for travelers or an idea of how long the disruption will last.
Public transport also affected
Public transport in the Netherlands is also experiencing problems in several places. Regional transporter Keolis says that there are no buses running in the province of Utrecht and the regions of Amersfoort and Almere. The buses can still drive, but due to the computer failure, drivers cannot contact the emergency center. "We want to guarantee safety on the road, which is why we have decided not to let the buses drive now," says a spokesperson. As a precaution, no buses are running in Almere either. The NS and ProRail say that they are not experiencing any inconvenience due to the disruption.
The site allestoringen.nl also reports hundreds of outages at sites such as the UWV, the bank KNAB and Microsoft. The UWV website was unavailable for a number of hours. The site is now back online, but logging in is not yet possible.
Source: https://nos.nl/liveblog/2529468-drukte-op-luchthavens-groeit-bussen-uitgevallen-operaties-geschrapt
Translated from Dutch to English with Google translate