On the night of the 7th to the 8th of February, the Vodafone Portugal was the target of a cyber attack which paralyzed voice, SMS and mobile data services. This absence of services began to be noticed around 21 pm on February 7th. At 23:XNUMX, Vodafone announced that it was “to identify and resolve technical issues that affect” the operator's network; at that moment, it was defined that the failure was not generalized, but a “technical failure"which is"impact a significant percentage of customers".
Around 1 am (Lisbon time) – on February 8th – Vodafone reported again that the Vodafone team was progressively recovering mobile voice services, although “if some disruptions continue to occur in connections to other operators🇧🇷 In the same communication, the operator referred that the top priority is to guarantee the “replacement of all services".
Shortly before 8 am on February 8, Vodafone Portugal sends a statement to the newsrooms entitled “Vodafone Portugal targeted by cyberattack". "Vodafone was the target of a disruption to its network, which started on the night of February 7, 2022 due to a deliberate and malicious cyber-attack with the aim of causing damage and disruption”, begins by writing the operator.
In this communication, the operator explains that it acted “immediately to identify and contain the effects and restore services”, having already recovered “mobile voice services” and referring that, at that moment, mobile data services are available exclusively on the 3G network in almost all of the country".
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"The dimension and seriousness of the criminal act to which we were subjected implies a careful and prolonged recovery work for all other services, involving multiple national and international teams and external partners.”, adds Vodafone in the same statement.
One of the information shared by Vodafone itself is that there are no “any indications that customer data has been accessed and/or compromised".
The National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and Technological Crime, also known as UNC3T, of the Judiciary Police is investigating the case. SIS and the National Cybersecurity Center are monitoring the case. At first glance, there is no ransomware.
At a midday press conference, Mário Vaz, CEO of Vodafone Portugal, indicated that the cyberattack is a “terrorist act”, having reaffirmed that there was no ransom demand.
