Digital services restored after cyberattack on German rail network

On February 18, 2026, German state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn reported that it had been the victim of a cyberattack that affected its digital information and ticket sales systems for several hours. The incident occurred in the afternoon and caused disruptions to the online services used by passengers to check schedules and manage reservations. Among the services affected were the DB Navigator mobile app and the web portal, two of the company's main digital tools. Although trains continued to operate normally on the German rail network, the technological problems caused difficulties for users who relied on these systems to plan their journeys.

Initial assessments indicate that the incident was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The strategy consisted of sending a large number of simultaneous requests to the company's servers with the aim of saturating them and causing a temporary outage of services. As a result, thousands of passengers were unable to access information about schedules, connections, or purchase tickets for several hours. In response to the situation, Deutsche Bahn activated its IT defense systems and worked to restore the platforms as quickly as possible. The company also reported the incident to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the German authority responsible for cybersecurity, in order to analyze the attack and strengthen protective measures.

After several hours of disruption, the affected systems were restored and digital services returned to normal. The company said there was no indication that customer personal data or other critical railway network systems had been compromised. The investigation into the source of the attack is ongoing, and no specific group or actor has been publicly attributed to it at this time.