Defense Minister Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD) wants sensitive military information to be removed from public government sites “immediately” writes them in answers to questions from the Senate. The Ministries of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W) and Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) are currently refusing to take the information offline.
NRC revealed in April that sensitive data about Defense power cables, pipelines and military radars can be found online. That message prompted the Ministry of Defense to shield sensitive information with “even more speed.”
This includes data on Defense fuel pipelines, which transport kerosene to military airports. The Ministry of I&W publishes a map where the precise coordinates, depth, pressure and material of the pipelines can be found. According to Defense, this information is vulnerable and susceptible to sabotage.
An interdepartmental working group has been set up to properly balance the interests of national security and that of disclosure
The Ministry of Defense says it has been in consultation with the two other ministries for some time about taking sensitive information offline. Last week, a “formal request” for this was submitted to the ministries of I&W and EZK.
Both ministries say that they are “in consultation” with Defense about the minister’s request. They do not respond to questions about why the information has not yet been taken offline. I&W previously announced that it is legally obliged to publish the maps. A change in the law is needed to take the information offline, I&W stated at the time.
The Ministry of Defense writes in the letter to Parliament that the “legal analysis” is still ongoing. An interdepartmental working group on ‘publicness and national security’ was set up in March 2026 to properly balance the interests of national security and that of disclosure and to develop shared policy, the minister writes.
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Awareness process
The intelligence services warn since at least 2022 for foreign espionage and sabotage of crucial infrastructure. In mid-2025, it was “officially reported” for the first time that “possibly defense-sensitive infrastructure data” could be found on government sites, Minister Yesilgöz wrote in the letter to Parliament.
Data has been taken offline since the autumn of 2025. This has already happened in a number of cases, “but not sufficiently,” the minister writes. “The news article [van NRC] shows that this needs to be accelerated even more to better protect Dutch interests.” The minister calls it “an awareness process” that “given the current geopolitical situation it is undesirable” to make certain information public.
NRC described in April that in addition to the kerosene pipes, technical drawings of military radars, the power supply to those radars, and detailed maps of the rail network are also available online.
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