911 emergency services were down statewide in Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon, the latest in a string of 911 service outages in a handful of states in recent months.
According to a statement posted to the Massachusetts State Police blog, the 911 Department was "experiencing a technical issue affecting public safety answering points (PSAPs) across the state." Instead of using 911 to request emergency services, a list of local department numbers was provided for Bay Staters to use until the 911 system can be restored.
BREAKING: Massachusetts dealing with statewide 911 system outage. pic.twitter.com/DZ2nRAn4aK
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 18, 2024
A public safety alert sent to the smartphones of those in Massachusetts warned that "Delays in public safety response may occur" as a result of the outage. The alert was apparently also delivered to phones in other states, including Maine, in error, triggering a FEMA investigation of the emergency alert system.
JUST IN: Massachusetts reporting statewide 911 outage pic.twitter.com/DfaO4fJSup
— BNO News (@BNONews) June 18, 2024
Earlier this year, 911 system outages in four states affected the ability of millions to contact emergency services. Hitting Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Texas, the hours-long April outage was reportedly caused by an accident while a light pole was being installed by a third party near infrastructure used to run 911 services by Lumen Technologies. The FCC launched an investigation, but there weren't initial indicators that the multi-state outages were caused by a cyber attack.
Still, U.S. officials have warned states that steps need to be taken to harden critical infrastructure such as telecom, water, and electrical systems, adding that CCP-backed hackers had already prepositioned themselves to launch an attack if Beijing gives the order.
