AT&T apologizes for massive system failure but rules out cyber attack
Customers were left in the dark as phone networks across the US went offline
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.AT&T has said that a massive outage that left people unable to make calls – including to 911 – was not caused by a cyber attack.
The provider said thew outage was caused by “the application and execution of an incorrect process” during network expansion. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve,” the statement read.
The White House echoed this saying that there was no evidence the outage was caused by a cyber attack
According to CNN, John Kirby, a National Security spokesman, said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are looking into the Thursday incident and contacting partners to “see what we can do from a federal perspective to lend a hand to their investigative efforts to figure out what happened there.”
Still, he said, officials are unsure about what caused the widespread outage.
“The bottom line is we don’t have all the answers to that. I mean, this just happened earlier today. And so we’re working very hard to see if we can get to the ground truth of exactly what happened.”
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is now working with AT&T to get to the root of the issue.
“CISA is aware of the reports and we are working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand ready to offer any assistance needed,” the agency’s Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity, Eric Goldstein, said in a statement.
The outage, which began early on Thursday, led to warnings from emergency services and advice from companies to get around the issue.
AT&T has around 250 million customers, making it the US’s biggest phone network by some distance. The company said all its entire network had been restored around 3pm ET.
Follow for all the latest on the outage below.
TikToker shows airport chaos caused by AT&T outage
AT&T says massive national outage caused by ‘incorrect process’ not cyber attack
AT&T's network is down, here's what to do when your phone service has an outage- Americans reporting nationwide cellular outages from AT&T, Cricket Wireless and other providers
‘Landlines are languishing'
Is this week’s AT&T outage a reminder of the importance of landlines? Fewer and fewer people have them – but those that do probably felt happy about it when the cellular service went down.
That’s the argument of this piece, about how the US fell out of love with the cord.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments