TelePacific's SmartVoice outage faces FBI cyber terror investigation

The disruption to TelePacific's SIP (session initial protocol)-based SmartVoice service, which prevented customers from making and receiving calls, is now under review by the FBI's cyber-terrorism division.

In a letter sent to SmartVoice customers on Monday, TelePacific's President and CEO Dick Jakult said that the "unprecedented attack" happened on March 24-25. Jakult has now asked the FBI's cyber attack division to root out the attack's source.

"This event, which has been determined to be a cyber-criminal act, was from an external source that circumvented the normal protocol and prevention methods recommended by our vendors Broadsoft and Acme Packet and followed by those in our industry, including TelePacific," Jalkut said in the letter.

Although the outage hampered user's ability to make and receive calls, it did not impact customers' Internet or data services.

Given the unpredictability of cyber attack events, Jakult said they "have implemented additional monitoring devices aimed specifically at identifying and patterning any external traffic and other specific measures to reinforce our network to prevent a similar or greater attack in the future."

For more:
- Vision2Mobile has this article

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