Pa.’s intermittent 911 outage caused by system ‘defect,’ not attack, state says
A more detailed analysis is underway, the state said. Officials previously said they did not believe a cyberattack or software update was the culprit.
A preliminary analysis has found that the intermittent 911 outages that affected Pennsylvania earlier this month were caused by a “defect” in an operating system and was not believed to be the result of a cyberattack, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday.
The agency did not elaborate on the “defect.” The agency had stated on July 11, the day of the intermittent outages, that a cyberattack was not suspected and that officials also did not believe the problems were caused by a software update.
“Based on our preliminary investigation there is no indication that this is cyber related,” an executive from Comtech Telecommunications Corp., the provider of the state’s “Next-Generation 911,” said in a statement provided by PEMA in a July 12 news release announcing the system was back to normal.
PEMA said Tuesday that a more detailed analysis of “this issue and corrective measures to enhance system redundancy are currently being executed. When complete, additional information that is not security-sensitive will be released.”
The agency suggested that people in Pennsylvania write down or save on their mobile phone the 10-digit number for their county’s 911 center in case of future emergencies when 911 cannot be reached.
On July 11, the problem was first detected with calls going into the Delaware County 911 system. When the problem was reported in other counties, a statewide alert was issued.
PEMA said that despite the intermittent outages, the majority of calls were being delivered to 911 centers.