The Internet Breaks: Notable Outages and Their Impact

Has there been an event that actually brought the internet to a standstill? Yes, and no. Throughout history, major outages and disruptions have momentarily brought down key infrastructures, causing widespread chaos. While some events have truly broken the internet, they are often not as widely known as those involving celebrities or well-known companies.

Major Internet Outages and Disruptions

Cloudflare Outage 2020

In July 2020, a major outage at Cloudflare, a key internet infrastructure provider, led to widespread disruptions. This outage lasted for about 30 minutes but was significant enough to impact many popular services. Cloudflare serves as a crucial layer of protection for websites, and when it fails, millions of users are affected. This outage highlights the importance of backup systems and redundancy plans in serious infrastructures.

Dyn DDoS Attack 2016

Another significant moment in internet history was the massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Dyn in October 2016. Dyn is a major Domain Name System (DNS) provider, and when it was attacked, a widespread outage occurred. Well-known websites like Twitter, Netflix, and Reddit were impacted, effectively making parts of the Internet inaccessible for several hours. This event demonstrates how a targeted attack on a single provider can have far-reaching consequences.

Facebook Outage 2021

Facebook, one of the largest social media platforms, experienced a significant outage in October 2021. A configuration change led to a six-hour disruption affecting not only Facebook but also Instagram and WhatsApp. This event underscored the interconnectedness of social media platforms and their impact on global communication. It also highlighted the technical risks involved in complex systems management.

Google Cloud Outage 2021

Google Cloud, another crucial player in internet infrastructure, faced a significant outage in December 2021. This led to disruptions across various sectors, including e-commerce and streaming services. Google Cloud provides a wide range of services, and when it goes down, it can impact a vast number of users. This incident reflects the importance of robust and reliable cloud services.

The Hidden Internet Outages

There have been instances where internet outages were not widely reported or recognized. For example, several months ago, there was a brief outage affecting some big companies. While it was mentioned in the news, it did not significantly impact individuals or their daily lives, and it did not receive widespread attention.

Another recurring issue has been bad router software. This has happened a few times and resulted in major outages. Localized outages due to router software issues can have significant impacts on individual networks, leading to frustration and inconvenience for users.

A Tragic Moment in Internet History: Michael Jackson's Death

One individual truly broke the internet when news of his death spread. Michael Jackson's death in 2009 caused an unprecedented surge in internet traffic, leading to major outages on various platforms and websites. The sudden and unexpected news overwhelmed servers, highlighting the vulnerability of the internet infrastructure during such events.

A Technical Moment in History: 1985 DNS Failure

From a technical perspective, one notable incident occurred in 1985. I was working on the ARPAnet around this time. There was an update to the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon (BIND), which broke DNS across the ARPAnet for a few hours. At the time, nearly all connected computers ran BIND, and it used UDP for small response packets and TCP for large ones.

An update to the list of core name servers for the entire Internet caused traffic to move from UDP to TCP. Many sites blocked traffic based on port numbers, blocking the TCP port for DNS. As a result, a significant portion of the Internet stopped being able to use computer names remotely. It took an hour to identify the issue, and sysadmins had to update their tables manually.

Mentor Eric was called in the middle of the night by old Berkeley friends who had dialed every name they could find. We spent the morning learning the necessary files so Eric could go home and get some sleep. Changes to both BIND and the latest routers were made over time to handle this issue, which was before the founding of Cisco and the widespread adoption of modern networking solutions.