Conclusions and Recommendations

Research for policy, pp. 59–74

Abstract

Abstract On 24 June 2019, an hour-long outage hit the Dutch emergency number 112 and 0900–8844, the national police telephone line. It was also impossible to contact hospitals, municipalities, and companies for some time. The primary system of KPN – the telecom provider – was out of action while three back-up systems failed. The incident, which according to KPN was probably due to software error, once again revealed the vulnerability of facilities in the physical world to digital failures. It also underlined the report’s central message: the need to be better prepared for incidents involving a digital dimension. These incidents are all the more critical when they are not limited to the digital domain, but have potentially disruptive consequences in the physical world and for confidence in the core institutions of society.

Authors 3

1. Erik Schrijvers

   Scientific Council for Government Policy

   Affiliation as printed

   Senior Research Fellow, Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, The Hague, The Netherlands

2. J.E.J. Prins

   Scientific Council for Government Policy

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair and Member of the Council, Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, The Hague, The Netherlands

3. Reijer Passchier Aachen Assistant Professor

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Assistant Professor, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands