The Dutch public transport card website has been hacked from abroad, making it inaccessible from outside the country. Domestic service has since been restored.

The denial-of-service attack aimed at paralysing ov-chipkaart.nl began on Saturday morning at 11.00 local time. The attack disrupted service for a short while, during which customers were unable to order any card-related products or look at their travel history. Computer experts soon found the attack came mostly from abroad.

In response, the company operating the transport card website, Trans Link Systems, decided to restrict access to domestic users, in a bid to keep the site up and running as much as possible. Domestic access to the website was restored by 14.00.

Foreign access to the site is being filtered until the attack ends or its source can be blocked. Preliminary investigations suggest the attacks originate mostly in Eastern Europe.

(cl/imm)

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