Major Internet Outage: DNS Issues Disrupt Connectivity

Widespread Internet Outage Impacts Major Services

A significant portion of the internet experienced disruptions on Thursday. Numerous widely used websites, applications, and online services were affected, with initial reports including UPS and FedEx – both now restored – alongside Airbnb and Fidelity.

Further reports indicated that Steam, LastPass, and the PlayStation Network were also experiencing downtime during the incident.

Global Impact and Affected Regions

The impact of this outage extended beyond the United States, affecting websites globally. Several media organizations based in Europe also reported experiencing difficulties.

The Root Cause: Akamai Outage

The source of the problem appears to be an outage at Akamai, a leading provider of internet security, networking, and content delivery services. Around 11 a.m. ET, Akamai acknowledged an issue with its Edge DNS service.

This service is crucial for maintaining the smooth and secure operation of websites, apps, and online services.

Understanding DNS and its Vulnerabilities

DNS services are fundamental to the internet’s functionality. However, they are susceptible to bugs and potential manipulation by malicious actors.

Companies like Akamai have developed proprietary DNS services designed to address these vulnerabilities for their clients. Nevertheless, outages or malfunctions can have cascading effects on all websites and services that depend on them.

Akamai's Response and Investigation

Akamai initially stated they were “actively investigating the issue.” A company spokesperson declined to confirm whether their outage directly caused the disruptions to other online platforms.

However, ThousandEyes, an internet monitoring firm acquired by Cisco in 2020, attributed the outage specifically to Akamai.

Akamai later confirmed they were in the process of recovery and had implemented a fix.

“We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations. We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated,” Akamai communicated to TechCrunch.

The company also clarified via Twitter that the outage was “not a result of a cyberattack.”

Past Incidents and Similar Outages

This isn't an isolated event. Last year, Cloudflare, another major networking service provider, experienced a similar outage due to a bug that caused widespread loading issues for sites like Shopify, Discord, and Politico.

In November, Amazon’s cloud service also faced difficulties, even hindering its ability to update its own status page during the incident.

Furthermore, the online workspace platform Notion experienced a significant outage earlier this year, prompting the company to seek assistance via Twitter.