Cyberattack Disrupts US Department of Transportation Call Center

Two people familiar with the situation told "Politico" that a call center belonging to one of the safety agencies within the US Department of Transportation was temporarily taken offline following a cyberattack targeting a government contractor.

The "Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration" (FMCSA) call center - operated by "Centurion," a company specializing in contact center services - first indicated technical difficulties via social media on October 6. It remains unclear when this attack began or whether it is still ongoing.

A previously undisclosed cyberattack disrupted a service dedicated to helping truck and large vehicle drivers and operators register through a new online platform called "Motus."

The department confirmed to the site that the FMCSA call center - managed by "Centurion" - suffered an attack on its network, causing its electronic domain to go offline, including telephone communication services.

The department added that agency data had not been compromised and that investigations into the incident are still underway.

The "Motus" system has faced numerous reports of errors since its launch in May. Truck drivers turned to the call center to resolve these issues; without this center, they would have only limited means to ensure the records needed to operate on the road remain updated, according to one source.

Public records indicate that "Centurion" also holds government contracts with both the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" and the "General Services Administration." Neither entity responded to requests for comment regarding whether their systems were facing similar outages.

One informed source stated that the attack appeared to be enhanced by artificial intelligence technologies, given the extreme speed at which certain systems were scanned. Some advanced AI models can detect vulnerabilities in operating systems and exploit them at a pace faster than any human could achieve.

According to "Politico," it is unclear whether the Department of Transportation (DOT) notified legislators or other relevant federal agencies about the cyberattack.

Under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act, federal agencies are required to notify the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of incidents where the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of a federal information system under the authority of an executive branch civilian agency may be at risk.

This is the third major cyberattack targeting a federal agency in recent weeks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) continues to investigate a breach affecting its job portal last month, which exposed personal information of most of its employees; meanwhile, a separate breach of a Pentagon system, also occurring last month, revealed sensitive data concerning millions of workers at the US Department of Defense.