Deutsche Telekom says fixed network outage may be work of hackers

[November 28, 2016] FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Around 900,000 Deutsche Telekom fixed-line customers in Germany have been hit by network outages that started on Sunday and are continuing, the company said on Monday, adding that it could not rule out that it was the target of hackers.

Timotheus Hoettges, CEO of Germany's telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom AG addresses the CyberSecurity summit in Bonn November 3, 2014. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
 

Fixed-line customers have had problems connecting to Deutsche Telekom's network since Sunday afternoon, the company said. Customer complaints on the site Allestoerungen.de (Breakdown) showed a surge of complaints around 1400 GMT that peaked at 1600 GMT and then picked up again on Monday at 0700 GMT.

The company said the outages affected certain customer routers which are used to dial into the network and offer phone, Internet access and online TV reception.

"Based on the pattern of errors, it can not be ruled out that the router has been targeted externally, with the result that it can no longer log on to the network," Deutsche Telekom said in a statement on it website.

Deutsche Telekom said 900,000 of its 20 million fixed-line customers were affected. It suggested users having connection problems unplug their router, wait 30 seconds and then restart their device. But if problems continued, the network operator advised them to disconnect their equipment from the network.

Allestoerungen.de, which uses data from DownDetector.com, reported tens of thousands of complaints across Germany ranging from Berlin, Hamburg and Duesseldorf in the north and Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich to the south.

Deutsche Telekom said in a statement that the rest of its customers could use its fixed-line network without any issues.

Some subscribers suggested that Deutsche Telekom may not be aware of the extent of the problems.

"Most of the customers can't report their complaints because the Telekom hotline and online customer center are not reachable," said Facebook user Ernst Schneider, a Telekom customer who noted that his own problems persisted on Monday.

Deutsche Telekom shares were down 0.2 percent at 14.74 euros at 1130 GMT on Monday, while the German blue chip index was down 0.9 percent.

(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Eric Auchard; Editing by Susan Thomas and Louise Heavens)

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