Safety Thinking attack on Vodafone services in Portugal, now being restored: the operators of the emergency services have also been hit. Vodafone
While in Italy the Vodafone group is grappling with iliad's offer for the acquisition of the local business, in Portugal it has to deal with a serious attack. The operator himself confirms the critical situation, through a press release that provides details on the incident and on the restoration operations. Vodafone was the target of a network outage on the night of February 7, 2022, as a result of a deliberate cyber attack that caused damage and disruption.
Portugal: attack on Vodafone, down servicesThe telco claims to have intervened as soon as the first anomaly was identified, in order to minimize the impact of the action. However, the consequences were heavy. Both 4G and 5G networks and fixed network communications, those via SMS and managed television entertainment platforms are affected. At first, only 3G data traffic was fully functional again, although not across the country. Unfortunately, the extent and seriousness of the criminal act that hit us imply careful and prolonged work on all services, so the recovery process involves several national and international teams as well as external partners. Investigations to identify the perpetrators of the attack are underway, with the involvement of the authorities as usual in these cases. A second press release confirmed the continuation of the work necessary to return to normal. According to what was reported by ArsTechnica, the emergency services were also affected by the malfunctions: from emergency responders to firefighters, up to hospitals. Local CEO Mário Vaz said the company has not received a ransom note, so the ransomware nature of the action is not confirmed. Customer data would remain safe. In Portugal, Vodafone manages 4.3 million mobile users and 3.4 million subscriptions to fiber optic connectivity. Source: Vodafone Portugal
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