Waterschap Zuiderzeeland said its pumping stations and other installations in Flevoland were digitally controlled, with the exception of the fuel-powered Wortman station in Lelystad, which is used only when necessary. The water authority said cyberattacks could not be ruled out, but that the systems controlling the installations were separated from the office network and were not directly accessible from the internet. It said the pumping stations and sluices were not affected by website outages linked to a security vulnerability in the PHP programming language.

The water authority said the systems were continuously secured and tested, and that it worked with other water authorities and specialised organisations to identify threats. It also maintained procedures for incidents, continuity and fallback options, including scenarios involving digital disruptions, system failures and prolonged power outages. Detailed information about individual capacities and response times was withheld for security reasons, but the authority said water levels in a polder would not rise sharply immediately after a failure, allowing time to detect a disruption and take action. Cyber risks and security incidents are being monitored through fixed procedures and escalation lines.