Cyberattack In Portugal Caused Vodafone Mobile Outage

The network operator Vodafone was the victim of a cyberattack that caused massive disruption to the company’s mobile network in Portugal. The group confirmed the incident after numerous customers reported problems yesterday. Like Vodafone Portugal confirmed in a press release, on the night of January 7, 2022, there was an attack on the company’s infrastructure, which caused the operator’s mobile network in the southern European country to partially shut down. They responded immediately to limit the impact of the attack, but some issues appear to persist.

4G and 5G networks are still disrupted

According to Vodafone Portugal, the fast data networks based on 4G and 5G are currently only available to a limited extent. The same goes for fixed telephony, SMS services, voicemail, and Internet TV. The 3G network was initially also affected, it is said, but is now almost fully usable again. The scale and severity of the internet-based attack on Vodafone’s network in Portugal would result in bigger and longer work, it said. Vodafone, therefore, works together with external partners and its own national and international teams to solve the problems.

The work was likely to make significant progress and hopefully complete later this Tuesday, the company said. Vodafone has now informed the responsible authorities and is working with them to track down the perpetrators of the attack. There is no indication that customer data has been compromised, the company said. It is the first time that a European network operator goes down on such a widespread basis as a result of a hacker attack. Vodafone Portugal has not yet commented on the background and details.