Germany’s national rail operator says it was hit with a cyberattack on its systems that disrupted ticketing and timetable information.
The company said a so-called DDoS attack hit its IT systems around midday Tuesday, causing outages in travel information and booking tools on its website and in the Navigator app.
What did Deutsche Bahn say about the cyberattack?
“DB has been and continues to be subjected to attacks on its IT systems,” the company stated on Wednesday. “The current attack is specifically targeted at DB and has occurred in waves. The scale of the attack is considerable.”
In a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, an IT system is effectively bombarded with requests from a large number of sources, causing it to become overloaded and, in the worst case, crash. Many such attacks are considered a form of digital vandalism.
Deutsche Bahn had informed customers about the disruptions on Tuesday afternoon, and by the evening said the systems were largely running stably again.
On Wednesday morning, further problems occurred, and the company later cited the cyberattack as the cause.
“Our defensive measures took effect in order to keep the impact on our customers as low as possible,” Deutsche Bahn said.
“We will not comment on speculation about the background of the attack,” the firm added. “Our top priority remains the protection of customer data and the availability of our information and booking systems.”
Deutsche Bahn is Germany’s national rail operator, running both passenger and cargo trains as well as suburban commuter railways in many cities.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said the company had been in contact with the country’s cybersecurity authorities.
Who is carrying out the attacks?
Germany’s security agencies have warned about transport infrastructure being a prime target for cyber- and physical attacks, especially with heightened tensions around Russia-linked hacking groups and hybrid threats.
Last year saw a string of what Deutsche Bahn has also called “nearly-daily attacks” beginning over the summer.
Crucial rail lines were sabotaged last year between Hamburg and Berlin, and between Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/deutsche-bahn-says-cyberattack-hit-ticket-and-info-systems/a-76024130