Charter Communications has deemed a June 15 attack on its communications network in Van Nuys an act of domestic terrorism, “based on the nature of the fiber cuts, extent of damage and makeup of impacted customers.”
But the Los Angeles Police Department called it vandalism.
Rhe early morning attack severed 13 cables, including more than 2,600 individual fibers, the company said, disrupting connectivity and impacted redundancy to emergency services, including a U.S. military base, emergency dispatch and 911 communication services, local fire and police departments, financial institutions, court buildings, health care facilities and hospitals, educational institutions, as well as cell towers providing mobile services.
More than 50,000 residential customers and 500 business customers were affected for up to 30 hours.
“These criminal attacks on our country’s vital communications networks are intentional and cause outages that put lives at risk,” Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey said in a statement. “This is a pervasive and persistent threat to American families and businesses across the country that cannot be tolerated, and such life-threatening events should be declared acts of domestic terrorism and prosecuted accordingly.”
“The FBI is aware of the Van Nuys incident and is working with our law enforcement partners to investigate the nature of the attack, to include the motive,” the FBI said. “No suspect has been identified at this time. Anyone with information should contact law enforcement. The FBI can be reached at 1-800 CALL-FBI, or online at tips.fbi.gov.”
LAPD issued a statement saying the attack was not believed to have been a case of terrorism.
“The incident involving the severing of fiber-optic cables in Van Nuys … is being investigated as a case of felony vandalism,” it said. “Based on the evidence collected and the circumstances observed at the scene, this incident is not being treated as an act of domestic terrorism.”
The company is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information related to the attack. It asked that anyone with information about the case it contact Spectrum at 833-404-TIPS (8477) or reach out to local law enforcement.
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