After a week-long outage to its cellular and texting services and vague updates about the problem, Cellcom has finally revealed that a cyber incident was behind the outage. While they did not directly disclose how their network was infiltrated, they say customers will still have to wait for full-service restoration. 

CEO Brighid Riordan addressed customers directly in a video posted on YouTube and said Cellcom had protocols in place to address the cyber incident and that it will still take the rest of the week to restore its services for consumers. The plan involved notifying Wisconsin authorities, the FBI, and enlisting the help of industry-leading cybersecurity experts. 

Riordan added that the part of the network targeted by the attack is separate from customer information and that there is no current evidence that personal or financial information was affected.

In addition to the extenuating volume of customer service requests via the Cellcom chat, many customers have lodged formal complaints with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP). In the meantime, customers are still being advised to use platforms such as WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger for communication while service is restored.