At around 8:30 this morning, my internet went down. Multiple resets didn’t help.

I tried to call my internet cable provider but couldn’t connect to the internet with cellular data either — a little odd.

I did see one number for my internet provider on a landing page, so I called it. A woman with a South Asian accent answered. I think she asked for my social security number but I’m not sure because there was so much background noise on her end.

The woman sounded weak, lethargic. Her voice had little affect. She spoke softly, even after I said I couldn’t hear her.

I hung up, of course. I began to wonder if I’d been hacked.

Clearing up (sort of)

I went to the office, spoke to an administrator, found the right number and called Xfinity. (This time I know it was legitimate because I couldn’t get a human being on the phone for anything.) They reported an outage in my area. They’ve been texting me all day but service has not been restored.

I can get cellular now; I’m using data to post this. I guess the cell signal was jammed after the internet outage (especially with most of the neighborhood home on Thanksgiving break). The landing page was probably generalized phishing, not a targeted attack.

At least that’s what I hope as I still sit here without service. Even during a vacation week, it’s startling how many daily tasks depend on a working internet connection.

Separation

The interruption left me a little disoriented all day — neither very productive nor really resting. I wish I’d just gone to the office first thing.

But mostly my mind goes back to that woman on the phone. It would have been evening or night where she was. Her surroundings were loud, her voice flat. I could hear a man speaking in the background.

Her utterly defeated tone made me think of one thing: trafficking. There was nothing I could have done for her. If I had asked her if she was okay, it would only have put her in potential danger. Probably she would have just hung up. I may report the line to federal fraud investigators, but they get thousands of such reports, and an investigation would almost certainly not help her anyway.

How can we be so close and yet so far apart?