U.S. cellular outage hits thousands of AT&T users

a reply to: marg6043

Yes. I am good there.

Currently seems to be any phone using ATT networks.

Cricket
Boost
Consumer Cellular.

Other networks seem fine T Mobile and Verizon (No issues for me with Verizon)
ATT fiber home internet has been solid all day.

Not sure I buy the Solar flare while a possibility I would think that other networks would be affected as well.

a reply to: AncientFather

I'm on Verizon iPhone and Xfinity internet in Northern California with no issues.


Consumer Cellular markets to an older (ie. Senior and Elderly) population. Loss of service to that population could be especially critical.


Solar flare seems unlikely, for the reason you state. This seems more like a hack, although reports are that it is not a hack.

US cybersecurty forces have been offered, but no word from ATT if they have been accepted.


As with all things security related (and this outage definitely is), the quieter the "officials" are regarding the issue, the more serious the "issue" can be presumed to be.

Well, seeing as how it was primarily ATT and there was no talk about Solar Flares in the news prior to today (they LOVE to sell the doom porn), we can rule out space fire.

Currently, DHS is investigating whether or not it was a cyber attack.

It should be a fairly quick and easy investigation, seeing how ATT lets the government snoop around their network and examine users private data and communications illegally and without warrant on a regular basis lololol

a reply to: LSU2018

I had the same kind of inkling this morning when I was reading about all the outages. The timing was a little creepy after reading that thread yesterday.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

From: SpaceWeather.com

CELL PHONE OUTAGE: While solar flares can affect communication systems, it is highly unlikely that these two X-flares contributed to today's widely reported cell phone outages. The flares, while intense, did not cause a solar radiation storm. Moreover, the shortwave radio blackouts they did cause were too brief and too low in frequency to interfere with most cell phone communications. Other explanations are more likely.

Even though there was a massive solar activity today, it was not likely to be the culprit in this outage. So you do seem to be on to something there. Let's not forget China got caught pretty bad yesterday.
From: Mili tary.com

Chinese police are investigating an unauthorized and highly unusual online dump of documents from a private security contractor linked to the nation's top policing agency and other parts of its government — a trove that catalogs apparent hacking activity and tools to spy on both Chinese and foreigners.

Among the apparent targets of tools provided by the impacted company, I-Soon: ethnicities and dissidents in parts of China that have seen significant anti-government protests, such as Hong Kong or the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang in China’s far west.

The dump of scores of documents late last week and subsequent investigation were confirmed by two employees of I-Soon, known as Anxun in Mandarin, which has ties to the powerful Ministry of Public Security. The dump, which analysts consider highly significant even if it does not reveal any especially novel or potent tools, includes hundreds of pages of contracts, marketing presentations, product manuals, and client and employee lists.

They reveal, in detail, methods used by Chinese authorities used to surveil dissidents overseas, hack other nations and promote pro-Beijing narratives on social media.

China has been known to attack infrastructure of what it calls "Hostile Nations". Given that even 911 service was highly affected by this outage, I would harbor to guess that this was an attack.

Warning from: Feb. 18, 2024 😀

FBI Director Says China Cyberattacks on U.S. Infrastructure Now at Unprecedented Scale

Christopher Wray on Sunday said Beijing’s efforts to covertly plant offensive malware inside U.S. critical infrastructure networks is now at “a scale greater than we’d seen before,” an issue he has deemed a defining national security threat.

originally posted by: xuenchen

Warning from: Feb. 18, 2024 😀

FBI Director Says China Cyberattacks on U.S. Infrastructure Now at Unprecedented Scale

Christopher Wray on Sunday said Beijing’s efforts to covertly plant offensive malware inside U.S. critical infrastructure networks is now at “a scale greater than we’d seen before,” an issue he has deemed a defining national security threat.

If it's a government sponsored cyber attack by China they are just playing with us "Ducks" testing the waters and laughing .

a reply to: xuenchen

Word around the campfire is that it is a Cisco issue.

originally posted by: Mike72
a reply to: xuenchen

Word around the campfire is that it is a Cisco issue.

LOL!

It's always a Cisco issue.

That company's products are responsible for handling the vast majority of the world's internet and data traffic. So whenever there's an outage, if it's not a fiber cut they're always somewhere in the middle of it anyway.

Their security tools are good but not what you call battle hardened. 3rd party stuff is required for that.

Test run by the US government.

ATT software update for spying.

Cyber attack by China or Russia

How did other countries do? Did they have issues?

originally posted by: AlongCameaSpider
How did other countries do? Did they have issues?

That's just what I came to ask. I haven't noticed any outages reported here in this thread from anywhere but in the United States. Doesn't the rest of the world use cell-phones, too? If it was something like a solar flare, can they be so selective as to only affect one country?

If it was a cyber attack, the SEC disclosure regulations would likely apply. The National Security and Public Safety Delay Provision in the regulations should apply here as it would be a threat to public safety with the 911 impacts. So we should know something in a few days due to filling requirements.

I think it's more likely someone misconfigured something and it took a lot of the network down.

I'm sure this was just a coincidence:

www.nbcwashington.com...

Over 200 people reported seeing a possible meteor fly over D.C., Maryland, Virginia and other northeastern states on Wednesday evening, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).

Dozens of people reported seeing the bright orb flash across the sky in Maryland and Virginia. The potential fireball was seen as far south as Lynchburg and Richmond, Virginia, and north toward Toronto, Canada

originally posted by: Daughter2v2
I'm sure this was just a coincidence:

www.nbcwashington.com...

Over 200 people reported seeing a possible meteor fly over D.C., Maryland, Virginia and other northeastern states on Wednesday evening, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).

Dozens of people reported seeing the bright orb flash across the sky in Maryland and Virginia. The potential fireball was seen as far south as Lynchburg and Richmond, Virginia, and north toward Toronto, Canada

a reply to: dothedew
And I will be so vested in the official DHS finding.
They wouldn't lie to prevent panic or to prevent making themselves look bad right?

a reply to: xuenchen

Chinese Hackers at the Behest of the Globalists .

originally posted by: Daughter2v2
I'm sure this was just a coincidence:

www.nbcwashington.com...

Over 200 people reported seeing a possible meteor fly over D.C., Maryland, Virginia and other northeastern states on Wednesday evening, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).

Dozens of people reported seeing the bright orb flash across the sky in Maryland and Virginia. The potential fireball was seen as far south as Lynchburg and Richmond, Virginia, and north toward Toronto, Canada

a reply to: Mantiss2021

My parents are on Consumer Cellular and it affected them. Luckily they were at home and I have wifi calling enabled on their devices.

I am also wondering about the Verizon users having issues. I know sometime last year Verizon and ATT made an arrangement when a Verizon phone is roaming in certain areas it piggybacks off of ATT LTE network. This may be the issue with those Verizon users especially in rural areas.

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