
911 call centers down in Washington state - _eht
https://twitter.com/ThurstonSheriff/status/1078551751144333312
======
dang
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.

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matheweis
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.

~~~
bg4
A friend reported it was down in Frisco, TX last night from midnight to 3am.

~~~
kodablah
Many north Texas communities in fact:
[https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/12/28/911-outage-...](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/12/28/911-outage-
reported-in13-texas-counties-including-collin-ellis-rockwall-parts-dallas-
county)

------
mattybrennan
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/10786404842292224...](https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/1078640484229222400)

~~~
bakies
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)

------
walrus01
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
We also got alerts here in the Portland metro too. Talk about a mess.

------
jefurii
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)

------
disabled
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-h...](https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-
unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/)

[3] [https://bgpstream.com/event/171779](https://bgpstream.com/event/171779)

~~~
rashkov
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
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.

------
jefurii
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18775160](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18775160)

------
meh206
Yup, my phone went off at 23:34 PST with a warning

------
bhartzer
We have the same issue here in North Texas... apparently because of
centurylink.

The sheriffs office is blaming centurylink.

------
threatofrain
Perhaps people need multiple communication methods for emergency services.

------
mp3geek
Don't worry, just remember the new number;

0118 999 881 999 119 725 3

~~~
LeonM
Totally forgot about that one! Thanks!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU)

~~~
senorsmile
... 3!

------
westpfelia
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.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
As a Brit it's interesting to see how the default American response to
anything out of the ordinary seems to be "we must be under attack!"

I don't mean this as any kind of criticism - I guess it's just a cultural
difference. For example we had someone shut down the second busiest airport in
our country last week by flying a drone around and the assumption here (by the
man on the street and the media in general) was "idiot with a new toy" rather
than "terrorist attack".

~~~
mr_overalls
I think the 9/11 attacks really left their mark on the public consciousness.

Add to that the near-daily school shootings, miscellaneous other mass
shootings, and general sense of frustration & helplessness about ongoing
Russian cyberwarfare and interference with our elections (I mean, for God's
sake, it seems reasonable to suspect that our President could actually be a
Russian intelligence asset), and the zeitgeist has become one of heightened
paranoia.

~~~
atmosx
> I mean, for God's sake, it seems reasonable to suspect that our President
> could actually be a Russian intelligence asset

I don't think so. That is propaganda from the other party. Strongest I've seen
in years, honestly.

~~~
mr_overalls
He has repeatedly sabotaged our relationship with traditional democratically-
governed allies (i.e. NATO) - and avoided criticizing Russia to an extent that
is simply bizarre.

For example, despite the repeated statements by American intelligence agencies
that Russian interfered in the 2016 election, Trump said in Helsinki that he
believed Putin's denials over his own intelligence apparatus. This is just
incomprehensible behavior by a President.

[https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-putin-press-
conference...](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-putin-press-conference-
election-meddling-2018-7)

~~~
vxNsr
> _He has repeatedly sabotaged our relationship with traditional
> democratically-governed allies - and avoided criticizing Russia_

The same could be said for his predecessor. See Israel, Japan, hot mic with
Medvedev.

I think we see what we want to see and forgive "our guy" because we believe
his intentions.

~~~
mr_overalls
Can you provide specifics on Obama's actions re: Israel and Japan that you
find objectionable?

~~~
vxNsr
Here's one article that explains the final "f u" obama gave to israel:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-b...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-
benjamin-netanyahu-barack-obama.html)

The constant calls for restraint on Israel's part as Israeli children as young
as 6 months were being stabbed to death in their beds by "freedom fighters"
lauded by PLO and PA media also comes to mind.

The blind eye towards how PLO officials spoke to their own people
(bloodthirsty talk of killing all the jews) vs what they said in English
(calls for peace if only Israel was willing to compromise).

But just googling "Obama and Israel" will give you tons more.

Obama's weak stance on NK and china at the expense of Japanese security was
seen as failing an ally.

I'm wondering if you could provide concrete examples of Trump sabotage. I'm
curious mostly because I'm guessing we're gonna see it very differently.

~~~
justin66
Just so nobody else wastes their time I thought I should point out that that
NY Times link doesn't support any of the crazy stuff you're saying.

~~~
vxNsr
Just so we're clear, the NYT article is only about Obama choosing not to veto
a resolution condemning Israel.

Not sure what I said that was crazy?

------
ru999gol
emergency numbers are down? that's terrible! How could that ever happen? Oh
its US infrastructure? nevermind

