Cyber Security Council: Resilience of Dutch communication infrastructure under pressure

The resilience of the Netherlands’ digital telecommunications and internet infrastructure is under pressure because of an “increasingly unsafe and unpredictable world,” the Cyber Security Council (CSR) said in a new advisory report released Thursday.

The CSR said the country’s communication infrastructure is strong, noting that the sector has invested heavily in improving digital resilience in recent years. However, the council identified five major risks that could threaten the reliability of the networks.

One concern is the geographic concentration of infrastructure around Amsterdam. The CSR also warned about the close dependence between energy systems and communication infrastructure, meaning failures in one sector could affect the other.

The council identified reliance on a limited number of suppliers as another risk. It also pointed to a lack of automatic backup options during major disruptions, such as a prolonged power outage, and limited capacity to absorb the impact of such failures.

The CSR called on the Dutch government to address the identified vulnerabilities and strengthen the resilience of the country’s communication infrastructure.