Global Internet Disruptions Caused by Cloudflare Outage
Widespread Internet Issues Reported
New Delhi, Dec 5: On Friday, users around the globe experienced significant internet disruptions due to an outage at Cloudflare, a major provider of internet services for numerous websites.
This incident resulted in accessibility problems for various prominent platforms, including Canva, as well as Downdetector, a popular service for monitoring outages. Numerous Indian websites and services, along with several news outlets, were also affected.
This incident marks the second outage for Cloudflare within a month. A similar technical failure in November had temporarily disrupted services for platforms like Spotify, ChatGPT, and the Truth Social platform associated with former US President Donald Trump.
As of now, Cloudflare has not issued an official statement detailing the cause or the impact of the latest outage.
The unexpected service interruption prompted frustrated users to take to social media platform X, where various hashtags related to the outage quickly gained traction. Many netizens voiced their dissatisfaction over the recurring disruptions, emphasizing the negative effects on their work, business activities, and online engagements.
Compounding users' frustrations, even Downdetector, the very platform people rely on to verify outages, was affected, leaving many uncertain about the scale of the disruption.
With the frequency of these outages raising concerns, users are urging Cloudflare to take swift action and enhance communication to prevent similar issues in the future.
Last month, Cloudflare experienced a significant global outage due to an internal configuration error. The CEO of Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, dismissed any speculation regarding a cyberattack.
This outage impacted several major platforms, including X, ChatGPT, Canva, Discord, and many other websites and applications worldwide. In a follow-up explanation, Prince noted that the issue arose when the company modified permissions on a ClickHouse database cluster.
The intention behind the update was to enhance data access; however, a problematic query resulted in the system retrieving an excessive amount of information. This error caused a crucial 'feature file' utilized by Cloudflare's Bot Management system to expand beyond its intended size.