10 ms·

911 call centers down in Washington state

193 points by _eht 8y ago

jefurii 8y ago
I just got a push notification to my phone about this. According to Clark (County) Regional Emergency Services Agency's Twitter feed this is due to a widespread CenturyLink outage: https://twitter.com/CRESA/status/1078415710064275456?s=20 https://twitter.com/CRESA/status/1078415710064275456?s=20
jefurii 8y ago
See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18775160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18775160
walrus01 8y ago
Broadcasters in WA state equipped with EAS have just had the following pushed to them: This automated message was sent by a Sage Digital ENDEC. Do not reply to this message. Alert Received at 12/27/18 22:54:40 from CAP Matched filter CIVIL, Received from CAP. EOM Received at 12/27/18 22:54:42. The Civil Authorities have issued a 911 Telephone Outage Emergency for all of Washington beginning at 10:53 pm and ending at 11:53 pm (fromcap). Washington State is currently experiencing multiple 911 outages in different parts of the state resulting in citizens receiving a busy signal. If this occurs during an emergency please contact the local non emergency number for your area.
- dawnerd 8y ago
  We also got alerts here in the Portland metro too. Talk about a mess.
matheweis 8y ago
It’s not entirely clear how bad it is yet, but this is far more widespread than just Washington. 911 has been down today in major cities in various states across the US, including Arizona, Idaho, Texas, Missouri, Oregon... and maybe more. I only realized this because I used to live in northern Arizona and received an emergency alert earlier today about 911 service being down in that area... then a couple hours later received the local one for King County, WA. After looking around a bit it turned out to be all over the US.
- elihu 8y ago
  Yep, I got an emergency phone alert (I'm in the Portland area) and I thought it was just a local thing too until someone on facebook mentioned it was national. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/28/nationwide-internet-outage-affects-centurylink-customers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/28/nationwide-internet-outage-a...
- bg4 8y ago
  A friend reported it was down in Frisco, TX last night from midnight to 3am.
  - kodablah 8y ago
    Many north Texas communities in fact: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/12/28/911-outage-reported-in13-texas-counties-including-collin-ellis-rockwall-parts-dallas-county https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/12/28/911-outage-...
- ilamont 8y ago
  Mass. state police reported the 911 problem has been fixed in Massachusetts. http://www.mspnews.org/2018/12/update-wireless-911-capability-caused-by-nationwide-centurylink-outage-has-been-restored/ http://www.mspnews.org/2018/12/update-wireless-911-capabilit...
westpfelia 8y ago
So maybe I'm a little paranoid, but does anyone else think its odd that 911 services are going down AND we had that major transformer explode in NYC? All in the course of a matter of hours? I'm not saying its anyone one in particular but it is smart to test your weapons before having to rely on them. And its a pretty well established fact that the US power system security is lacking. Maybe i'm just being paranoid but I'm a security engineer. I'm supposed to be.
- matheweis 8y ago
  I’m going with Hanlon’s Razor on this. If you wanted to test your cyber weapons, I’d imagine you wouldn’t want to draw too much attention to yourself by testing them simultaneously. On the other hand, years of cost cutting and other “efficiency” measures can easily explain both the problems with the power grid as well as the 911 networks.
  - pjc50 8y ago
    Indeed. Degrade infrastructure overnight and it's a terrorist attack. Degrade it over 20 years and it's "small government".
    - Proven 8y ago
      Yeah small government destroys infrastructure because networks and roads are way too sophisticated for private companies to design, build and operate.
    - Gravityloss 8y ago
      You can affect this as a foreign power. Pay some think tank to produce material for (so called) media outlets.
      - johnchristopher 8y ago
        I am not a US citizen and not living in the US but I can't recall hearing a foreign official or non-official supporting a reduced US government. US local politicians are vocals enough about it.
meh206 8y ago
Yup, my phone went off at 23:34 PST with a warning
mp3geek 8y ago
Don't worry, just remember the new number; 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
- LeonM 8y ago
  Totally forgot about that one! Thanks! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
  - senorsmile 8y ago
    ... 3!
ru999gol 8y ago
emergency numbers are down? that's terrible! How could that ever happen? Oh its US infrastructure? nevermind
disabled 8y ago
This is most likely a TDOS attack, given the busy signals [1]. Plus, the transformer that happened to blow last night in NYC adds to the suspicion, as the Ukraine Power Grid attack on December 23, 2015 was a TDOS attack [2], too. Additionally, there was a BGP network hijacking incident to the US Department of Energy today [3]. [1] https://www.nojitter.com/when-911-busy https://www.nojitter.com/when-911-busy [2] https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/ https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-h... [3] https://bgpstream.com/event/171779 https://bgpstream.com/event/171779
- saganus 8y ago
  I've heard about DoS and DDoS but not TDoS. So in case someone else is wondering what TDOS is, it's "Telephony Denial of Service"
- rashkov 8y ago
  It is wild speculation to assert that these events are connected, without any supporting evidence. Let's please keep this kind of thing to a minimum. This should not be considered good content for this forum.
  - api 8y ago
    Its speculation, but not terribly wild. This is the world we live in. The most likely explanation is the holiday effect where people go on vacation and stuff goes wrong.
- gcb0 8y ago
  add to it that there is a group selling a new standard for 911 call systems (which is today managed by a single politician and a team of contractors!). they demoed the proposed architecture on defcon this year.
bhartzer 8y ago
We have the same issue here in North Texas... apparently because of centurylink. The sheriffs office is blaming centurylink.
mattybrennan 8y ago
Just got an alert about 911 being out in MA. A bit belated, if state police twitter is correct that it was fixed 3 hrs ago https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/1078640484229222400 https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/10786404842292224...
- gapo 8y ago
  Yup.
- danbr 8y ago
  Same here....I’m in Brookline, where as the MSP stated the earlier outage were for towns much west of Boston.
- bakies 8y ago
  MEMA just tweeted that it is still ongoing, I was confused about the MA State Police tweets hours before the alert too https://twitter.com/MassEMA/status/1078694654604922885 https://twitter.com/MassEMA/status/1078694654604922885
dang 8y ago
There's another discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18777794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18777794. Since that article adds new information, we'll leave it up instead of marking it a dupe.
threatofrain 8y ago
Perhaps people need multiple communication methods for emergency services.

193 points by _eht 8y ago

I just got a push notification to my phone about this. According to Clark (County) Regional Emergency Services Agency's Twitter feed this is due to a widespread CenturyLink outage: https://twitter.com/CRESA/status/1078415710064275456?s=20 https://twitter.com/CRESA/status/1078415710064275456?s=20

jefurii 8y ago

See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18775160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18775160

walrus01 8y ago

Broadcasters in WA state equipped with EAS have just had the following pushed to them: This automated message was sent by a Sage Digital ENDEC. Do not reply to this message. Alert Received at 12/27/18 22:54:40 from CAP Matched filter CIVIL, Received from CAP. EOM Received at 12/27/18 22:54:42. The Civil Authorities have issued a 911 Telephone Outage Emergency for all of Washington beginning at 10:53 pm and ending at 11:53 pm (fromcap). Washington State is currently experiencing multiple 911 outages in different parts of the state resulting in citizens receiving a busy signal. If this occurs during an emergency please contact the local non emergency number for your area.

dawnerd 8y ago
We also got alerts here in the Portland metro too. Talk about a mess.

matheweis 8y ago

It’s not entirely clear how bad it is yet, but this is far more widespread than just Washington. 911 has been down today in major cities in various states across the US, including Arizona, Idaho, Texas, Missouri, Oregon... and maybe more. I only realized this because I used to live in northern Arizona and received an emergency alert earlier today about 911 service being down in that area... then a couple hours later received the local one for King County, WA. After looking around a bit it turned out to be all over the US.

elihu 8y ago
Yep, I got an emergency phone alert (I'm in the Portland area) and I thought it was just a local thing too until someone on facebook mentioned it was national. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/28/nationwide-internet-outage-affects-centurylink-customers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/28/nationwide-internet-outage-a...
bg4 8y ago
A friend reported it was down in Frisco, TX last night from midnight to 3am.
- kodablah 8y ago
  Many north Texas communities in fact: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/12/28/911-outage-reported-in13-texas-counties-including-collin-ellis-rockwall-parts-dallas-county https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/12/28/911-outage-...
ilamont 8y ago
Mass. state police reported the 911 problem has been fixed in Massachusetts. http://www.mspnews.org/2018/12/update-wireless-911-capability-caused-by-nationwide-centurylink-outage-has-been-restored/ http://www.mspnews.org/2018/12/update-wireless-911-capabilit...

westpfelia 8y ago

So maybe I'm a little paranoid, but does anyone else think its odd that 911 services are going down AND we had that major transformer explode in NYC? All in the course of a matter of hours? I'm not saying its anyone one in particular but it is smart to test your weapons before having to rely on them. And its a pretty well established fact that the US power system security is lacking. Maybe i'm just being paranoid but I'm a security engineer. I'm supposed to be.

matheweis 8y ago
I’m going with Hanlon’s Razor on this. If you wanted to test your cyber weapons, I’d imagine you wouldn’t want to draw too much attention to yourself by testing them simultaneously. On the other hand, years of cost cutting and other “efficiency” measures can easily explain both the problems with the power grid as well as the 911 networks.
- pjc50 8y ago
  Indeed. Degrade infrastructure overnight and it's a terrorist attack. Degrade it over 20 years and it's "small government".
  - Proven 8y ago
    Yeah small government destroys infrastructure because networks and roads are way too sophisticated for private companies to design, build and operate.
  - Gravityloss 8y ago
    You can affect this as a foreign power. Pay some think tank to produce material for (so called) media outlets.
    - johnchristopher 8y ago
      I am not a US citizen and not living in the US but I can't recall hearing a foreign official or non-official supporting a reduced US government. US local politicians are vocals enough about it.

meh206 8y ago

Yup, my phone went off at 23:34 PST with a warning

mp3geek 8y ago

Don't worry, just remember the new number; 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3

LeonM 8y ago
Totally forgot about that one! Thanks! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
- senorsmile 8y ago
  ... 3!

ru999gol 8y ago

emergency numbers are down? that's terrible! How could that ever happen? Oh its US infrastructure? nevermind

disabled 8y ago

This is most likely a TDOS attack, given the busy signals [1]. Plus, the transformer that happened to blow last night in NYC adds to the suspicion, as the Ukraine Power Grid attack on December 23, 2015 was a TDOS attack [2], too. Additionally, there was a BGP network hijacking incident to the US Department of Energy today [3]. [1] https://www.nojitter.com/when-911-busy https://www.nojitter.com/when-911-busy [2] https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/ https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-h... [3] https://bgpstream.com/event/171779 https://bgpstream.com/event/171779

saganus 8y ago
I've heard about DoS and DDoS but not TDoS. So in case someone else is wondering what TDOS is, it's "Telephony Denial of Service"
rashkov 8y ago
It is wild speculation to assert that these events are connected, without any supporting evidence. Let's please keep this kind of thing to a minimum. This should not be considered good content for this forum.
- api 8y ago
  Its speculation, but not terribly wild. This is the world we live in. The most likely explanation is the holiday effect where people go on vacation and stuff goes wrong.
gcb0 8y ago
add to it that there is a group selling a new standard for 911 call systems (which is today managed by a single politician and a team of contractors!). they demoed the proposed architecture on defcon this year.

bhartzer 8y ago

We have the same issue here in North Texas... apparently because of centurylink. The sheriffs office is blaming centurylink.

mattybrennan 8y ago

Just got an alert about 911 being out in MA. A bit belated, if state police twitter is correct that it was fixed 3 hrs ago https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/1078640484229222400 https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/10786404842292224...

gapo 8y ago
Yup.
danbr 8y ago
Same here....I’m in Brookline, where as the MSP stated the earlier outage were for towns much west of Boston.
bakies 8y ago
MEMA just tweeted that it is still ongoing, I was confused about the MA State Police tweets hours before the alert too https://twitter.com/MassEMA/status/1078694654604922885 https://twitter.com/MassEMA/status/1078694654604922885

dang 8y ago

There's another discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18777794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18777794. Since that article adds new information, we'll leave it up instead of marking it a dupe.

threatofrain 8y ago

Perhaps people need multiple communication methods for emergency services.