Shortly after the cellular services of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile experienced disruptions in various regions of the United States, speculation regarding a potential cyber-attack began circulating on social media. Numerous users reported encountering network problems, leaving them stranded in SOS mode during the early hours of Thursday morning.
What Caused the Disruption?
Over 31,000 AT&T customers documented outages on the digital-service monitoring platform DownDetector. While outage reports slightly decreased from the peak at 4 am Eastern Time, they resurged during the 6 am Eastern Time hour. According to the Daily Mail, more than 2,400 service disruptions from U.S. wireless carriers Verizon and T-Mobile were also logged on the platform.
"Downdetector offers real-time status information for over 12,000 services across 47 websites representing 47 countries," the website states. Service disruptions were reported in New York, Boston, Washington, Montreal, Honolulu, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco.
The outlet further reported that apart from there has been no official communique from the network operators as to what caused the outage. Customers of providers such as Boost Mobile, Consumer Cellular, and Straight Talk are also experiencing difficulties, in addition to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, as per the outlet.
Reactions on Social Media
Even though none of the cellular companies gave the possible reason of the outage, social media users speculated it to be caused by a cyber-attack. "So, is America under a cyber attack? There is no internet unless you have WiFi in many places?" wrote a user on X.
"It's a national issue. Other networks are experiencing it as well. It could be that cyber attack we were warned about," expressed another user.
"I can CONFIRMED that Dallas, TX has NO cell signal. My iPhone is on SOS Mode... Could this be a #cyberattack? Seeing reports of no signal in Los Angeles, Orlando, and New York," read a tweet.
"Yup, it's official.. my child will NOT be attending school today and we'll be home all day.. this #ATT situation is beginning to look more like a #CyberAttack .. y'all stay safe and protected," wrote another user.
"This is unconfirmed, but I'm hearing that it could be a cyber attack on American cell Carriers. Take it with a grain of salt I guess," opined a user.
I hope this AT&T thing wake yall up lol see how easy them folks can turn yo life upside down?? Now let’s say they do the electric grid and turn everybody power off for a few days.. this was a coordinated cyber attack if you didn’t already know!
— ð–™ð–ð–Š ð–‘ð–†ð–˜ð–™ ð–‡ð–Žð–Œ ð–ð–”ð–’ð–Žð–Š (@addicted2andre) February 22, 2024
