Incident: Cyber Attack Disrupts Vodafone Portugal's Services, No Data Breach

Published Date: 2022-02-08

Postmortem Analysis
Timeline 1. The software failure incident at Vodafone Portugal happened on Monday evening [124558]. Estimation: Step 1: The article mentions that the incident occurred on Monday evening. Step 2: The article was published on 2022-02-08. Step 3: Based on the information, the incident likely occurred on Monday evening, February 7, 2022.
System 1. Vodafone Portugal's system 2. 4G network 3. Websites of one of Portugal's biggest newspapers and a major broadcaster [Article 124558]
Responsible Organization 1. A hacker attack was responsible for causing the software failure incident at Vodafone's Portuguese unit [Article 124558].
Impacted Organization 1. Vodafone's Portuguese unit [124558]
Software Causes 1. The software causes of the failure incident were a deliberate and malicious cyber attack on Vodafone Portugal's system, leading to technical problems that disrupted services for thousands of customers [124558].
Non-software Causes 1. The failure incident was caused by a hacker attack, described as "deliberate and malicious" by Vodafone Portugal [124558].
Impacts 1. Thousands of Vodafone Portugal customers were unable to make calls or access the internet on their phones or computers [124558]. 2. The 4G network remained unavailable, but customers in most of the country could use 3G [124558].
Preventions 1. Implementing robust cybersecurity measures such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and regular security audits could have potentially prevented the hacker attack on Vodafone Portugal's system [124558]. 2. Conducting regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and address any weaknesses in the system's security could have helped in preventing such deliberate and malicious cyber attacks [124558]. 3. Enhancing employee training on cybersecurity best practices to prevent social engineering attacks or inadvertent actions that could lead to system vulnerabilities [124558].
Fixes 1. Conducting an in-depth investigation of the cyber attack to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen security measures to prevent future attacks [124558].
References 1. Vodafone's Portuguese unit statement [124558] 2. Customers reporting inability to make calls or access the internet [124558] 3. Vodafone Portugal's confirmation of a deliberate and malicious cyber attack [124558]

Software Taxonomy of Faults

Category Option Rationale
Recurring one_organization, multiple_organization (a) The software failure incident having happened again at one_organization: The article mentions that the attack on Vodafone Portugal came a month after the websites of one of Portugal's biggest newspapers and a major broadcaster were hacked, and both media organizations remain unable to access their websites. This indicates that Vodafone Portugal experienced a similar incident to other organizations in Portugal [124558].
Phase (Design/Operation) design, operation (a) The software failure incident at Vodafone Portugal was caused by a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack, indicating a failure due to contributing factors introduced during the system development or system updates [124558]. (b) The disruption in services experienced by Vodafone Portugal's customers, where they were unable to make calls or access the internet, could be attributed to a failure due to contributing factors introduced by the operation or misuse of the system [124558].
Boundary (Internal/External) within_system (a) The software failure incident reported in Article 124558 was within_system. Vodafone Portugal stated that the disruption in services was caused by a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack originating from within the system itself. The company assured customers that their personal data had not been compromised, indicating that the failure was contained within the system [124558].
Nature (Human/Non-human) non-human_actions (a) The software failure incident at Vodafone Portugal was attributed to a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack, indicating a non-human action as the contributing factor [124558].
Dimension (Hardware/Software) software (a) The software failure incident reported in Article 124558 was due to a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack on Vodafone's Portuguese unit, causing disruption to its services. This indicates that the contributing factor for the failure originated from an external source (hacker attack) rather than internal hardware issues [124558].
Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) malicious (a) The software failure incident at Vodafone Portugal was malicious in nature. The article mentions that the disruption in services was caused by a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack [124558]. The attack was aimed at causing harm to the system and disrupting the services provided by Vodafone Portugal.
Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) unknown (a) The software failure incident at Vodafone Portugal was caused by a deliberate and malicious cyber attack, indicating poor decisions made by the hackers to disrupt the services [124558].
Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) unknown (a) The software failure incident reported in Article 124558 was due to a deliberate and malicious cyber attack on Vodafone's Portuguese unit. The attack caused technical problems, disrupting services for thousands of customers who were unable to make calls or access the internet. Vodafone Portugal stated that the incident was a result of a "deliberate and malicious" cyber attack, indicating that the failure was not accidental but rather a targeted attack by external actors [124558].
Duration temporary The software failure incident reported in Article 124558 was temporary. Vodafone's Portuguese unit experienced a disruption in its services due to a hacker attack, leading to technical problems that affected thousands of customers. However, the company assured that customer data had not been compromised, and they were working on restoring normal services gradually. This indicates that the failure was temporary and not permanent [124558].
Behaviour crash, other (a) crash: The software failure incident in Article 124558 can be categorized as a crash. Vodafone's Portuguese unit experienced a disruption in its services due to a hacker attack, leading to technical problems that rendered thousands of customers unable to make calls or access the internet on their devices [124558]. (b) omission: There is no specific mention of the software failure incident being caused by the system omitting to perform its intended functions at an instance(s) in the provided article [124558]. (c) timing: The software failure incident in the article is not attributed to the system performing its intended functions correctly but too late or too early [124558]. (d) value: The incident did not result from the system performing its intended functions incorrectly [124558]. (e) byzantine: The software failure incident does not involve the system behaving erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions [124558]. (f) other: The behavior of the software failure incident in the article can be described as a deliberate and malicious cyber attack that disrupted the services, leading to a loss of functionality for customers [124558].

IoT System Layer

Layer Option Rationale
Perception None None
Communication None None
Application None None

Other Details

Category Option Rationale
Consequence delay, non-human, no_consequence, theoretical_consequence (a) death: There is no mention of any deaths resulting from the software failure incident in the article [124558]. (b) harm: There is no mention of physical harm to individuals resulting from the software failure incident in the article [124558]. (c) basic: There is no mention of people's access to food or shelter being impacted due to the software failure incident in the article [124558]. (d) property: The software failure incident at Vodafone Portugal did not result in the compromise of customer data, as stated by the company. Therefore, there is no direct mention of people's material goods, money, or data being impacted [124558]. (e) delay: The software failure incident caused thousands of customers to be unable to make calls or access the internet on their phones or computers, indicating a delay in their communication and connectivity services [124558]. (f) non-human: The software failure incident affected the services provided by Vodafone Portugal, leading to disruptions in their network availability and functionality [124558]. (g) no_consequence: The article mentions that there is no evidence of customer data being accessed or compromised as a result of the cyber attack, indicating that there were no observed consequences in terms of data breach [124558]. (h) theoretical_consequence: The article mentions that the incident is under investigation, and an in-depth investigation of the cyber attack will continue for an indefinite period with the involvement of competent authorities. This suggests potential consequences being discussed or anticipated, although not yet realized [124558]. (i) other: There is no mention of any other specific consequences resulting from the software failure incident in the article [124558].
Domain unknown (a) The failed system was related to the telecommunications industry, specifically affecting Vodafone's services in Portugal [124558].

Sources

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