this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Europe

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[โ€“] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 48 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Today's episode of "Malfunction or Moscow?"

[โ€“] federalreverse@feddit.org 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Auto-translated:

15:31 : Ribera says that nothing points to the blackout in Spain and Portugal being intentional

The vice president of the European Commission (EC) for the Clean Transition, Teresa Ribera, says that the blackout recorded in Spain and Portugal is one of the "most important" in recent years and points out that nothing allows us to think that it has been intentional. "There is nothing that allows us to make us think that there is anything intentional," Ribera also said in statements to the press. (EFE)

Speculation is fun, but ... :)

[โ€“] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks! Yeah it's important to stick to the evidence. Otherwise it'll seem like cyber attacks are much more prevalent than they actually are which helps Putin. But it's hard not to have that initial reaction when hearing about fires and blackouts in Europe lately.

[โ€“] Amberskin@europe.pub 2 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

What really scared me is the internet service and mobile networks went down a few minutes (like, 2-3 minutes) after the main power.

Comms switch centers and cell towers are supposed to have batteries to keep them running for a while. But they went black almost immediately.

During the day we got some short moments of connectivity. Short and sparse.

There are things that Iโ€™d like to have some explanation for.

[โ€“] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

That's not what happened in the entirety of Spain. I'm from one of the least affected areas (basque country) where the blackout only lasted ~2h. My cellphone had 4g connection the entire time.

[โ€“] Amberskin@europe.pub 1 points 16 hours ago

Good to know, and somehow good news.

[โ€“] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Aux power is probably not suited to deal with an outage of this scale. They probably reserved whatever they had at their disposal for emergency calls. Unless those didn't work either in which case damn.

[โ€“] Amberskin@europe.pub 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

At this very moment, the tower my cellphone hooks to is not providing 5G connectivity. But when I went out to have breakfast and walked just one block I got a good one. So maybe some equipment was damaged by whatever happened (and has still not been repaired, which is understandable).

[โ€“] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 1 points 16 hours ago

Yes that's quite likely too

[โ€“] softcat@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And introducing guest star ".... Washington!?"

[โ€“] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I wouldn't rule out Beijing either. They always got a folding chair somewhere.

[โ€“] kodoku@beehaw.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i thought spain and china are on good terms, or at least compared to most other eu countries

[โ€“] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I don't know about their relationship, I just know that chinese tech took root too deep in too much critical infrastructure in Europe.

[โ€“] huppakee@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

Spain wouldn't be a primary target and if they would be in their national grid they would most likely hide there until they have a reason for using it (like put pressure or take revenge). Russia on the other hand has already been proven to sabotage stuff in the EU, their main goal being creating chaos and unrest. If it would be either of them, I think Russia is by far a more likely culprit. But let's not jump to conclusions too fast either. You are right China is capable of causing something like this.

[โ€“] Melchior@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Both Spanish and Portugese officals have been talking about the possibility of a cyber attack. The fact that hours later we do not know what happened makes that unforunatly a possibility.

[โ€“] futatorius@lemm.ee 1 points 15 hours ago

I've also seen resports from credible sources discounting that possibility. So it's probably wise not to jump to conclusions.