Bibi van den Berg about malfunctions in IT systems
Due to a major telephone disruption, 112 was unavailable for hours on Monday 24 June. At Albert Heijn, Tuesday 25 June, cash registers refused service. Bibi van den Berg, professor in Cyber Security Governance at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, looks back on aspects of the disasters of Monday and Tuesday; ‘We need to get used to this type of malfunction more often’.
Van den Berg reports that it is extremely serious that 112 was not available. ‘But apart from that, I find it striking that no oil staining occurred on Monday. A failure in one network can sometimes result in failures in other systems or networks’, says van den Berg.
Possible reasons
Van den Berg gives as possible reasons that it may be due to the heat of these days. ‘There is a chance that certain parts in the technical infrastructure cannot withstand high temperatures’. Or by human error, for example, ‘an IT employee makes an incorrectly software update‘.
Read more on the website of the Dutch newspaper Reformatorisch Dagblad (Dutch).