D. Telekom says fixed network outage may be work of hackers (updated)

Tecom Co

28/11/2016 14:28

* 900,000 of 20 mln customers fixed network can't get access 
    * Telekom, German gov't says can't rule out hackers' attack 
    * Complaints surged at 1400 GMT Sunday and continue Monday 
    * Telekom says 400,000 customers still affected Monday at 
midday 
 
 (adds officials saying outage may be linked to hackers, 
details) 
    By Eric Auchard and Harro Ten Wolde 
    FRANKFURT, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of 
Deutsche Telekom  DTEGn.DE  customers in Germany have been hit 
by network outages that could be the work of hackers, the 
company and government security experts said on Monday. 
    Deutsche Telekom said as many as 900,000, or about 4.5 
percent of its 20 million fixed-line customers, began to have 
problems connecting to its network on Sunday afternoon.  
    The outages affected certain customer routers which are used 
to dial into the network and offer phone, Internet access and 
online TV reception, the company said. 
    Telekom said on Monday its security measures appeared to be 
taking effect and that the number of customers affected had 
declined to around 400,000 by 1200 GMT. "There is a clear 
improvement in the current situation," a spokesman said. 
    Customer complaints registered on the site Allestoerungen.de 
(Breakdown) showed a surge at 1400 GMT on Sunday that peaked 
around 1600 GMT, then picked up again on Monday.     
    "Based on the pattern of errors, it can not be ruled out 
that the router has been targeted externally, with the result 
that it can no longer log on to the network," Deutsche Telekom 
said in a statement on it website. 
    German security officials said the outages at Deutsche 
Telekom may have been caused by hackers. "It obviously looks 
like the work of hackers", several government sources told 
Reuters. 
    Deutsche Telekom said its technology experts have identified 
the problem as stemming from how some customer routers connect 
to the network, but declined to give further details, saying the 
company was still investigating the outage. 
    The company suggested that users having connection problems 
unplug their router, wait 30 seconds and then restart their 
device. But if problems continued, the network operator advised 
them to disconnect their equipment from the network. 
    Allestoerungen.de, which uses data from DownDetector.com, 
reported tens of thousands of complaints across Germany ranging 
from Berlin, Hamburg and Duesseldorf in the north and Frankfurt, 
Stuttgart and Munich to the south. 
    Deutsche Telekom said the rest of its customers could use 
its fixed-line network without any issues. 
    Some subscribers suggested that Deutsche Telekom may not be 
aware of the extent of the problems. 
    "Most of the customers can't report their complaints because 
the Telekom hotline and online customer centre are not 
reachable," said Facebook user Ernst Schneider, a Telekom 
customer who noted that his own problems persisted on Monday. 
    Deutsche Telekom shares were down 0.5 percent at 14.71 euros 
at 1408 GMT on Monday, while the German blue chip index  .GFAXI  
was down 0.7 percent. 
  
 
 (Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach and Peter Maushagen 
in Frankfurt and Andreas Rinke and Sabine Siebold in Berlin; 
Editing by Louise Heavens and Keith Weir) 
 ((harro.tenwolde@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1271; Reuters 
Messaging: harro.tenwolde.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: DEUTSCHE TELEKOM OUTAGES/