Entering and breaking
Mobile operator Vodafone has experienced a break in at one of its technical facilities, believed to be in Basingstoke. But the real damage done during the break in was to some equipment, resulting in the loss of both voice and data services to Vodafone customers.
There's not a lot more info right now, but here's the official line from Vodafone:
We had a break in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment. This means that some customers may be experiencing temporary loss of voice, sms and internet services. We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can. There has been no impact on the privacy of customers' data.
You have to wonder what the motives of the burglars were. If they were just looking for some loot, why were they anywhere near critical technical equipment, let alone damaging it so severely that it takes down the network? That begs the question of whether there was industrial espionage or sabotage involved.
This also asks profound questions of not just Vodafone's security, but its apparent reliance on one site for the provision of its service to however many customers have been affected by this. Surely its network should be sufficiently robust to be able to withstand some incidental damage from a break in.
UPDATE - We've just received an update from Vodafone that voice services have now been restored, but that SMS and data are still a work in progress. This has apparently affected a few hundred thousand of its 19 million UK customers.
