Bandwidth says its internet voice services are working again following cyber attack
Raleigh technology firm Bandwidth, a maker of software for internet-based voice and text communications, said its services are operational again following a cyber attack that caused outages earlier this week.
Bandwidth suffered a DDoS attack last weekend — or distributed denial-of-service — that caused multiple days of problems for the company, and ultimately affected business phone lines across the country.
Those issues kept recurring sporadically until Wednesday night, Bandwidth spokesman David Doolittle said in an email.
“We saw intermittent disruptions last night around 7:30-9 pm Raleigh time but since then our technical teams report normal network operations with successful call completion,” he said.
Bandwidth is one of the country’s largest providers of VoIP technology, which helps companies connect phones and messaging to customers over the internet. The company provides key services that make phone calls possible on platforms like RingCentral, Google and Zoom. It also helps many 911 emergency services handle call traffic.
A DDoS attack is a flood of fake requests and traffic to a company’s website or service. The requests can overwhelm a company, leading to normal users being unable to access its services, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association for the information and technology profession.
On Tuesday, the company’s CEO, David Morken, confirmed the attack in an apology to customers.
“Bandwidth and a number of critical communications service providers have been targeted by a rolling DDoS attack,” he said. “While we have mitigated much intended harm, we know some of you have been significantly impacted by this event. For that I am truly sorry.”
Several VoIP providers have been hit with DDoS attacks in recent weeks, including Canada-based Voip.ms and England-based VoIP Unlimited.
On Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was in communication with Bandwidth about the attack.
“The FBI is aware of reports of a DDoS attack involving Bandwidth,” Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Charlotte Division, said in an email. “We are monitoring the situation and have been in contact with the company.”
In the attack against Voip.ms, a ransom was involved. The perpetrators of the attack against Voip.ms demanded that the company pay 100 bitcoins, or around $4.2 million, to stop the DDoS attack, ArsTechnica reported.
It is not known if a ransom was involved in the Bandwidth attack, or if the same people were suspected in all three attacks. Bandwidth declined to comment about the specifics of the attack.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 4:46 PM.
