Tag Archives: cellular outage

Million Dollar Question: Michael Snyder speculates the possibility of what caused major telecommunication failure across the country

hacker-cyberwar

Important Takeaways:

  • Was America Just Attacked? We Have Now Been Put On Notice That Our Communication Infrastructure Is Extremely Vulnerable
  • [Daily Mail reported] Once the outage began, federal authorities moved very rapidly to determine whether it was a cyberattack or not…
    • Federal agencies are ‘urgently investigating’ whether the massive cellular outage that plagued Americans on Thursday was a cyberattack.
    • The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are on the hunt to track down what disrupted service AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and a dozen other cellular providers.
    • While the agencies have not shared details, a security expert told DailyMail.com that the outage has hallmarks of a hack.
    • McKnight, associate professor at Syracuse University in New York, said the widespread nature appears to be ‘a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack on core Internet infrastructure.’
  • I have a feeling that they will assure the general public that it was not a cyberattack no matter what they discover.
  • In situations such as these, keeping everyone calm is often deemed more important than telling them the truth.
  • [The Express Reports] Interestingly, pharmacies all over the U.S. were also having major problems on Thursday due to a cyberattack against “one of the biggest healthcare technology companies in the nation”…
    • Pharmacies all over the country are experiencing delays in prescription orders due to a cyberattack on one of the biggest healthcare technology companies in the nation, Change Healthcare.
    • Change Healthcare first noticed the “cyber security issue” affecting its networks on Wednesday morning on the East Coast.
  • Today, there are a number of foreign powers that possess very robust cyberattack capabilities.
  • One of them is China, and the Washington Post is reporting on a trove of leaked documents that show that the Chinese “are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure”…
    • A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure — with hackers of one company claiming to be able to target users of Microsoft, Apple and Google.
    • The cache — containing more than 570 files, images and chat logs — offers an unprecedented look inside the operations of one of the firms that Chinese government agencies hire for on-demand, mass data-collecting operations.
    • Of course, I have no idea if China was involved in the incidents that we witnessed today.
    • But without a doubt the Chinese have some of the most advanced cyberattack capabilities in the entire world.
  • On Thursday, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio ominously warned about what China could do to us if a full-scale war breaks out…
    • ‘I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage,’ said Sen. Marco Rubio, Fla., top Republican on the Intelligence Committee.
    • ‘But I do know it will be 100 times worse when #China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a #Taiwan invasion. And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank,’ he went on.
  • He is right.
  • But the Russians have similar capabilities.
  • So do the North Koreans.
  • In all of human history, there has never been a “cyberwar”, and so we don’t know exactly what one would look like.
  • But it is clear that our communication infrastructure is extremely vulnerable, and what we just witnessed should definitely be a wakeup call for all of us

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