How fragile will communications become as we move practically everything that was reliable infrastructure to the Internet? Corporations may complain of monetary and productivity losses but much of the public will be left nearly blind when massive outages occur.

In some of these cases, having a monitoring service like ours running at key locations would have prevented finger-pointing and countless hours lost investigating where and why some of these outages occurred.

This is a collection of headlines that should be a wake-up call.

Cyber-attack on eCitizen platform cause of outage, says Owalo
Excerpt; The downtime being experienced on the eCitizen portal has been caused by hackers attempting to jam the portal through an overload of data requests, ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has revealed.

Speaking during a morning show with a local radio station on Thursday morning, the CS said that no personal data had been accessed or lost and that every effort was being made to restore normalcy.

The kind of hacking experienced on the eCitizen portal is known as a Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which disrupts a network, server or website by flooding it with meaningless internet traffic to prevent legitimate users from accessing services.

The CS revealed that the attack had been carried out by a group that identified itself as Anonymous Sudan.

Disruptions in cellphone, internet service reported in SoCal high desert communities
Excerpt; VICTORVILLE, Calif. (KABC) — Widespread outages in internet and cellphone service were reported in Victor Valley, Apple Valley and Santa Clarita on Sunday apparently due to vandalism and damage to lines.

Spectrum says its customers were impacted in Victorville and Apple Valley and work was underway to restore service. “Our lines were damaged as a result of vandalism in the Victorville area,” the company said. “Our teams responded right away and we are working as quickly as possible to make the necessary repairs to the fiber cuts to restore service.”

An unexplained outage at Chase Bank leads to interruptions at Zelle payment network
Excerpt; An unexplained outage at Chase Bank has led to interruptions for users of the Zelle payment network, who took to social media to complain.

Zelle said on Twitter that its network is functioning normally and pointed a finger at Chase, saying the bank was experiencing trouble with payment processing. “The rest of the Zelle network is up and running,” it tweeted. “Chase is one of our partner banks, and as such, is in full control of the Zelle feature in their app.”

NASA Warns Of “Internet Apocalypse” That Could Disable Internet For Months. Would the world survive?
Excerpt; The internet has become an integral part of our daily lives, connecting people, businesses, and governments across the globe.
However, recent reports suggest that a potential “internet apocalypse” could disrupt this worldwide network. NASA, the renowned space agency, has issued a warning about a looming threat that could potentially disable the internet for months.
In this article, we will delve into the details of this alarming scenario and explore the potential causes and consequences.

State Network Internet Outage Impacts State Capitol

Excerpt; The Connecticut State Capitol was one of many state buildings impacted by a widespread internet outage Tuesday.
The Department of Administrative Services got service back up just before 3 p.m., but state lawmakers say it impacted their work in the legislative session as meetings were canceled throughout the day.
In the middle of a busy session, the Capitol and Legislative Office Building were quiet as people went home early.
“It’s made today a little bit more challenging in terms of legislating,” Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) said.
Announcements indicated public hearings were delayed or as people tried to connect to spotty internet.
“We can’t connect at all, there’s nothing to connect to. We can’t get our emails, we can’t get online, we can’t look at the testimony,” Rep. Bill Buckbee (R-67th District of New Milford) said. The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) released a statement on the incident.

State regulators to investigate internet outage in Taos

Excerpt; TAOS — The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission has launched an investigation into the cause of last week’s internet service outage in Taos, which left residents and businesses throughout the county without service for at least two days and might have led to millions of dollars in economic losses.

The problem occurred the afternoon of June 5, when crews working on a road reconstruction project on Paseo del Pueblo Norte severed buried fiber optic lines operated by Lumen Technologies, formerly known as CenturyLink. The resulting outage affected all of Taos County and reached as far as Santa Fe, where city and county government websites were offline for more than a day.
Verizon Communications’ cellphone service also was disrupted for over 48 hours.
A Verizon spokesperson confirmed the outage but did not comment on its geographical scope or the number of customers affected.

Ufone’s Network Outage in Islamabad Sparks Frustration Among Local Residents

Excerpt; The residents of Islamabad have been left exasperated as Ufone’s network outage continues for the past four days, causing significant disruptions in their daily lives. The network outage has particularly affected the areas of Chirah and Tumair, leaving people unable to make calls and connect to the internet.

Revenue at Risk: The Financial Impact of IT Problems on Businesses

Excerpt; In today’s business world, the ability to harness the power of technology is essential for success. However, with technological advancement come risks, including IT problems that can significantly impact a company’s financial performance. These IT issues can range from software malfunctions to outages, data breaches, and even malicious attacks. As such, it is important for companies to understand the revenue at risk associated with IT problems and to develop strategies to minimize the potential financial losses they can cause. This article will explore the threats posed by IT issues, the financial impacts of these problems, and how businesses can protect themselves against them.

New Tool Measures Economic Impact of Internet Shutdowns

Excerpt; July 10, 2023 – New measuring tool NetLoss launched by the Internet Society shows the impacts of internet shutdowns on economies including Iraq, Sudan and Pakistan, where government-mandated outages have cost millions of dollars in a matter of hours or days.

Indiana Internet outage map: How to check your status

Excerpt; Summer in Indiana means the chance for severe weather, and that can mean the dreaded loss of internet.
With so many working from home or just relying on the internet for countless devices around the house, it’s crucial to know exactly how long you might be impacted.
Here’s how to check outages for your local provider and get some answers on when it may return.

Spectrum outage hinders internet, phone services in south Monterey County

Excerpt; Update 4:45 p.m.: In response to a question from KSBW 8, Spectrum released the following information:

“Damage to a third-party carrier’s fiber optic network caused by a construction crew is impacting service for Spectrum customers in parts of Monterey County. Our engineering team has engaged that carrier and crews are actively working to repair the damage as quickly as possible.”

Is the ‘internet apocalypse’ nigh? Breaking down the solar-storm science

Excerpt; It sounds like the stuff of sci-fi. Magnetic fields unleashed by a solar superstorm rip through Earth’s magnetosphere, sending currents surging through human infrastructure. Aurora borealis unusually fill southern skies with shimmering blues and greens. We look up from our phones and computers to catch a glimpse, and the internet as we know it blinks out.

Optimum internet down or not working? You’re not alone

Excerpt; Optimum provides both internet and TV services in multiple areas in the United States.
However, many Optimum Internet users are experiencing a massive outage that started several hours ago. So, they are currently unable to use the company’s internet services (1, 2, 3).
Optimum internet down or not working
Social platforms like Twitter are full of users expressing their annoyance with the situation. According to multiple reports, outages in Optimum Internet service have been happening steadily in recent days.

RPD Auto Impound resolves internet issues after outage

Excerpt; ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Rochester Police Department announced they have resolved their internet issues at the Auto Impound.
RPD said they lost internet connectivity at around 4 p.m. Tuesday. On Wednesday just before 11:45 a.m., the issues were resolved.
Police say because of this, they were unable to process any vehicles or transactions. They say they are actively working with City IT to determine the cause of the outage and make any necessary repairs. RPD adds they will be waiving any applicable storage fees during the time of the outage.

Outages ’caused by variables’, says Vumatel as Joburg subscribers experience loss of connectivity

Excerpt; Vumatel fibre subscribers in parts of Johannesburg have complained about having no service from Tuesday evening.
A subscriber in Marlboro Gardens posted on Twitter that he had no internet on Wednesday and connectivity had still not been restored.