Widespread Telecom Outages Reported: Contingency Preparedness Recommended

On June 15, 2020 widespread voice and data outages were reported across the U.S. with disruptions in service among major cell service carriers, internet service providers, social media platforms, gaming sites, streaming services, banking services, delivery services, and teleconferencing platforms.

Responsibility for the outages was attributed to a service upgrade conducted by T-Mobile that went awry. T-Mobile’s CEO has acknowledged the issue and the company’s president of technology has offered an apology. Reported outages across other services were likely the results of users experiencing problems connecting to T-Mobile services (e.g., calls or texts to T-Mobile customers not getting through were blamed on the sender’s service). The issue has since been resolved and service provision has resumed as normal.

ACA Guidance

The effects of the T-Mobile service outage highlight the need for advanced business continuity and contingency planning, with strategies in place to overcome service disruptions that could impact functionality.

ACA Aponix recommends taking the following actions: 

• Prepare, revise, and test business continuity plans (BCPs) with procedures in place to respond to major events, including significant communication service disruptions.
• Include the use of alternate service providers in planning; e.g., when service to company mobile devices is disrupted, allow for use of personal devices on different cellular networks.
• Establish alternate lines of communication in the event of service disruption, with diverse contact information for staff distributed in digital and hard copies.
• Educate staff in the use of alternate data service providers (e.g., tethering to cell data plans for Wi-Fi).
• Fortify company networks against real DDoS or other digital attacks, with the use of perimeter safety tools, penetration testing, and the availability of alternate server service providers.
• Educate staff as to verifying service-related rumors against credentialed sources.
• Provide team members with reliable cybersecurity information.

How We Help

ACA Aponix offers the following solutions that can help your firm be prepared for the event of major service outages or similar situations affecting business continuity:

• Business continuity planning resources
• Cybersecurity and technology risk assessments
• Policies, procedures, and governance
• Phishing testing and cyber awareness
• Penetration testing and vulnerability assessments
• Threat intelligence
• Cyber incident response planning
• ACA COVID-19 Resources

Contact Us

If you have any questions, please contact your ACA Aponix consultant or email us at info@acaaponix.com.