Hacking attack blocks Dutch government websites

The Dutch government said Wednesday that an attack by hackers was responsible for the massive disruption that resulted when access to state websites was blocked Tuesday.

"The disruption was caused by a DDoS attack," said a statement on the government's website, referring to a denial-of-service method used to slow down or disable a network by flooding it with communication requests.

Websites went down around 0900 GMT and the disruption lasted well into Tuesday evening, the statement added, noting other communications like phone lines were not affected.

Dutch satirical news website GeenStijl and communications provider Telford were also hit.

The government and the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre and web host Prolocation will jointly investigate where the attack originated from.

Dutch political parties have requested an explanation in parliament, and asked the Justice Ministry to ensure that government websites remain running, even in case of cyber attacks.

In a previous attack in May 2013, government websites went offline for four hours.