Another DDoS attack leaves Dutch universities with little to no internet
A “major DDoS attack” is again targeting the joint network of Dutch universities, universities of applied sciences, university hospitals, and research institutes on Friday. The institutions are experiencing “slow or no internet connection,” SURF, the education IT service provider, reported to ANP.
The DDoS attack started at around 8:20 a.m. and is affecting institutions spread across the country. SURF also recorded several attacks overnight, after DDoS attacks on Wednesday and Thursday already strangled the internet connection of higher education institutions.
A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack overwhelms a network with an exceptionally high volume of traffic, causing it to crash. The fault-detection site Allestorningen is showing reports of internet issues from student cities like Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen, Leiden, Tilburg, Utrecht, and Zwolle on Friday morning.
The Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e), which has been experiencing network issues since last week, told Brabants Dagblad that its classes will resume after the weekend, with everything scheduled for the past week getting caught up in the coming weeks. It will publish the new timetables for the coming three weeks on Friday.
On Tuesday, the DigiD system, a platform used to access government services, was targeted in a separate DDoS attack. It caused widespread disruptions to services such as MijnOverheid, the Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer (RDW), and the Centraal Justitieel Incassobureau.
