911 emergency services suffer outage in several US states amid warnings of cyber attacks

Many states across the United States (US) reported a 911 emergency services outage on Wednesday. Citing officials, a report by the news agency Reuters on Thursday said that the outage was reported in the entire state of South Dakota, and portions of Nevada, Texas, and Nebraska among others.

Later on Wednesday, officials in South Dakota and Las Vegas said that 911 services had been restored, but the reason for the outage was unclear.

The Las Vegas police said that their 911 service had been restored and that everyone who called during the outage had been called back and given assistance. South Dakota's Department of Public Safety said efforts were underway to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, in Texas, the police department in Del Rio said on its Facebook page that emergency services were down.

Authorities also asked people not to call 911 as a test.

This outage came as the Department of Homeland Security has warned of increased risks of cyber attacks on 911 services, as they have migrated to digital, internet-protocol-based systems. Several cyberattacks targeting 911 systems have taken down the services in recent years, Reuters reported.

In early 2017, a nationwide 911 outage was reported. The outage paralysed 911 centres in over a dozen states and AT&T customers were unable to contact 911.

(With inputs from agencies)