On Thursday morning, thousands of AT&T customers woke up to the discovery that their phones were now in SOS mode because of a massive outage affecting the wireless provider. Soon, social media began filling up with reports that other cell phone providers like Verizon and Cricket were also experiencing outages (they were, but very minimally), which sparked a wave of reactions that the country was now in a Leave the World Behind type situation.
The Netflix film centered on a cyberattack that began its first phase by taking down cell phone networks to isolate the populace. However, the Leave the World Behind jokes suddenly took a dark turn when reports started coming in that both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were investigating the outage and demanding answers.
Was the outage a cyberattack after all? Not so much. According to AT&T, the real cause of the outage was a different, but not surprising culprit: A software update.
Via ABC News:
AT&T told ABC News in a statement ABC News that the outage was not a cyberattack but caused by “the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network.”
“We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve,” the statement continued.
Despite all of the Leave the World Behind memes, AT&T wants everyone to know that the outage was a simple software screw-up and not a “nefarious or malicious” event caused by an “external actor.”
In layman’s terms, the bloops didn’t bleep right, and that’s why you couldn’t text on the can yesterday. Mystery solved.
(Via ABC News)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/what-really-caused-the-att-outage/
