Hundreds of computer-generated phone calls forced a Minneapolis crisis center to shut down its teen hot line this week, part of a growing number of cyberattacks aimed at extorting money from agencies that stand to lose the most when their phones are down.
The first such attack known in Minnesota, it forced the Bridge for Youth to shut down its teen crisis line Tuesday and switch to a different number.
The agency turned its regular hot line back on at 3 p.m. Wednesday. While the flood of calls had stopped, the incident left employees shaken.
"The bottom line from all of this was that our youth weren't able to get through, and we weren't able to conduct our business," said Joan Countryman, the organization's emergency services program manager.
In what's known as a "telephony denial of service" scam, attackers use the Internet to jam phone lines with constant calls from randomly generated numbers. Attacks have happened across the country, often targeting places where phone service is crucial, like hospitals and emergency call centers.
Massoud Amin, a University of Minnesota professor and director of the Technological Leadership Institute, said these attacks are increasing and relatively easy to orchestrate. Attackers just need a good power supply and one or more computers to call a number repeatedly and overload a telephone network.
The circumstances of the attack were much like those reported elsewhere.
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI sent out an alert about them a year ago.