Iranian hackers claimed responsibility for the AT&T outage that left thousands of Texans without internet, TV, and phone services Monday, Sept. 7.
The group APT IRAN wrote on its Telegram channel Tuesday that it attacked “telecommunications and other critical infrastructure in Texas” and also took credit for disrupting an unknown water utility in Texas. The claim was first reported by Threat Beat, a publication associated with the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University.
AT&T initially said the outage was due to fiber equipment and cable issues. In an updated statement, the company said there is no evidence to support the claim.
“We have no evidence to support that claim. Our assessment indicates that attempted cable theft led to the outage. Internet service across Dallas and surrounding areas is operating normally, and we continue to monitor our network and review relevant information,” the statement reads.
The AT&T outage was reported Monday morning, with Downdetector showing a significant jump in customer issue reports at about 2:18 a.m., followed by a large increase in reports starting at about 10:30 a.m., WFAA previously reported. Reports of outages peaked shortly before 3 p.m. at 5,990, but quickly dropped, and the outage was mostly resolved by 6 p.m. Monday.
“We were just dead in the water,” said Terry Snuggs, who lives in Denton County and relies on the internet as a clinical systems engineer for hospitals and their diagnostic imaging equipment. “It’s frustrating, especially when not only just the home fiber goes down, but when the cellular data, the backup method goes down with it, you know, everything was out. And that becomes untenable in this day and age.”
APT IRAN is closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated CyberAv3ngers, according to Threat Beat. It previously claimed that late July attacks on dozens of water systems were “only to warn” of the group’s ability to hack critical U.S. infrastructure. The group claimed it attacked water systems in Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, South Dakota and Arkansas.
On Aug. 30, the hackers claimed they would target more critical infrastructure.
“We had previously warned that anyone who encroaches on this soil and threatens our beloved Iran will pay for this mistake with their lives,” APT IRAN’s wrote, according to Threat Beat. “You ignored our warnings, and we in Minnesota warned you again. You ignored them again; but this time we will sew the lips and mouths of the American people together.”
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