02/18/2026, 12:0302/18/2026, 12:03
Deutsche Bahn is struggling with disruptions in its information and booking systems. According to Deutsche Bahn, the reason for the disruption was a cyber attack.
The systems are now available again, as the railway announced on Wednesday. The company did not provide any information about possible perpetrators of the attack.
There had already been IT difficulties on Tuesday afternoon. Both the DB Navigator train app and the bahn.de website were affected. On both systems, customers can usually obtain timetable information and book tickets, among other things. After the systems were “largely stable” again in the evening, as the railway announced, there were problems with the systems again on Wednesday morning.
Rail: Defensive measures worked
“Our defensive measures have been effective in order to initially keep the impact on our customers as low as possible,” said a railway spokesman. Nevertheless, there were temporary restrictions in the information and booking systems.
According to the railway, the attack was a DDoS attack. A DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) is a digital overload attack: thousands of hijacked computers or devices simultaneously send so many requests to a website or an app such as “DB Navigator” that it collapses.
For users, it appears as if the site is offline, even though it has not technically been destroyed. The aim of such attacks is usually to blackmail, sabotage or put political pressure on companies or authorities. (hkl/sda/awp/dpa)