911 Outage In US: China Cyberattack Hacking Theories Explored

On Wednesday night, April 17, a major 911 outage affected over nine states. As per the law enforcement agencies, the emergency services were restored after several hours. 

Until now, it was not clear what is the reason behind such downtime or if these are related to some bigger conspiracy theories. Thus, in the wake of this, several theories have come up. 

As per reports by NBC News, a cyberattack might be the reason behind impacting the key US systems. The 911 outage was given a potential China angle by social media users. 

Several reports suggested that Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nevada, Nebraska, Florida and Texas were the states which were severely affected by the 911 outage.

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We are aware of reports of 911-related outages and we are currently investigating.

— The FCC (@FCC) April 18, 2024

911 Outage in The US

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety went to social media and posted that it was aware of the entire state getting interrupted due to 911 service. 

Furthermore, the agency added that sending a text to 911 worked in several locations. 

“The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department 911 Communications” stated that the 911 outage affected non-emergency and 911 calls as well. 

The department added that calls from landlines also didn’t work. However, officials could check the numbers from which calls were made. 

The department went to X and tweeted, “Dial on a mobile device, and we will be able to see your number and will call you back right away.”

Even the officials of Nebraska faced a similar problem. In Texas, the Del Rio PD stated, “an outage with a major cellular carrier was to blame.”

ABC News published an analysis which underscored the concerns about the potential effect of this disruption of emergency services, and its connection with the exploitation of sensitive data. 

The publication highlighted that “ransomware attacks have disrupted the networks of police departments and 911 call center operations”.

However, USA Today later reported that the 911 Outage experienced in several states in the US, was due to the installation of light pole.

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