Internet service across Eagle Mountain has been crashing in and out since Saturday after a cyberattack slammed into the network of local provider Direct Communications, leaving homes, businesses and even city hall struggling to stay connected. The company says the trouble traces back to unusually high traffic hitting its upstream network providers — the kind of flood typically associated with a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack.
Direct Communications first reported the cyberattack on September 19, saying it caused internet outages and service disruptions for customers throughout Eagle Mountain, Utah, according to KUTV. The company said the surge in traffic was consistent with a DDoS attack and that the disruption hit its upstream providers directly, causing slow speeds, packet loss and, at times, complete service outages for customers.
An upstream provider eventually implemented a fix that restored stability to the network, but the station's report notes that some customers could still see slower-than-normal speeds or other lingering performance issues even after that fix took hold. The relief didn't last. Service briefly stabilized Saturday night before going spotty again, and by Sunday night it had gone down once more, according to ABC4.
Outages Kept Coming Back Through the Weekend
The instability didn't resolve into a clean fix-and-forget situation. Per KMYU, service had briefly stabilized on September 20 but continued to go in and out throughout the day, and the company confirmed it was down again during its Sunday evening update. That back-and-forth pattern left customers unsure from hour to hour whether their connection would hold.
Downhunter, a service that tracks outage reports, said there were more issues than usual affecting Direct Communications in the United States in the 24 hours leading into Monday. The site recorded nine outage reports in that window, though it stopped short of confirming a widespread outage, according to Downhunter.
City Hall Phones Went Down, Library Stayed Open
The disruption wasn't confined to home internet. City hall's phones went down along with the rest of its services, while the library stayed open, but only with limited services, as ABC4 reported. It's a reminder of how deeply Eagle Mountain's municipal operations lean on the same network infrastructure residents use for streaming and email.
What Direct Communications Is Asking Customers to Do
Direct Communications asked customers still experiencing issues to unplug their router for about 30 seconds before plugging it back in, a basic reset that can clear up lingering connectivity problems once network stability returns. The company warned, however, that customers who factory reset their routers during the outage will need to set them up again from scratch — a more involved process than a simple restart.
The company also said its Eagle Mountain office would temporarily close to the public until service was restored, and that its customer service and tech support phone lines would also be unavailable, since the outage affected internet and phone service at its own offices. Those lines and the office are expected to reopen once service is restored, according to notices posted on the company's site.
Direct Communications said its engineering team would continue monitoring the network closely to make sure service remained stable going forward. As of its most recent customer notice, the company said it did not have a confirmed estimate for full restoration.
