Officials in Sioux falls, South Dakota confirmed that their 911 system suddenly went offline for just over two hours Wednesday night. And they weren't alone. Authorities in Texas, Nebraska and Nevada also announced similar outages in multiple cities. 

"The 4culprit a fiber cut during the 5installation of a 6light pole," said Lumen Thursday morning: a networking company that provides 7enhanced 911 services to several U.S. states. A Lumen rep 8declined to tell CNN more details about the installation 9hiccup or where the light pole was located. 

Although a potential cause has been identified in this case, 10widespread outages like this across 11infrastructure, healthcare, and business systems nationwide are under increasing 12scrutiny by federal agencies and national security experts. Just this week, a cybersecurity firm said Russian hackers are suspected to have temporarily 13taken control of a computer network in the small town of Muleshoe, Texas in January. 

A similar cyber attack happened at a water plant in Pennsylvania last year that U.S. officials blame on Iranian hackers. 

"14Command and control of critical systems has been under attack by 15hostile foreign powers." 

As for the multi-state 911 outage, only three of the four states impacted are serviced by Lumen. Authorities in Del Rio, Texas said Thursday afternoon that their 16disruption was related to the mobile provider in their area.