10 Biggest Internet Outages in History

Key Takeaways

There’s a saying amongst devs: never push to production on Friday. They were vindicated on the morning of Friday, July 19 when the world woke up to the biggest internet crash ever recorded. This global internet outage, stemming from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike’s update, distrupted critical infrastructure across a multitude of industries. But it wasn’t all gloom as social media users celebrated the unexpected light work on Friday, starting their weekends early.

While some reveled in the unexpected internet crash, for Microsoft and CrowdStrike, it wasn’t exactly a cause for celebration. The fallout was swift. According to Tom’s guide, CrowdStrike’s stock price lost nearly 14%. Microsoft wasn’t unscathed either, with their shares dropping by 2.4% in the wake of the global outage.

1. Microsoft (MSFT) July 2024

The Microsoft outage (or Crowdstrike outage, technically speaking) created a new meter stick for internet crashes. This massive internet outage was due to a widespread security incident between Microsoft and Crowdstrike computer systems. Here’s how it unfolded:

• The culprit: It all started with a security incident in CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software, an update that caused Windows PCs globally to crash.
• Global ripple effect: This outage caused extensive disruptions across different sectors. Airlines canceled at least 1,400 flights (with United Airlines and Delta Air Lines hit hardest) due to the internet crash, affecting many travelers globally.  The finance world was also impacted, with the London Stock Exchange Regulatory News Service going offline in the wake of the outage.There was also a major impact on hospitals and the healthcare sector at large. Scheduled surgeries were cancelled, and patients faced cancelled medical visits, or long lines to be seen.
• Microsoft 365 blues: If you rely on Microsoft 365 for work, you likely felt the pain on Friday. Logging in, connecting to servers, and accessing SharePoint all became impossible.
• Action stations: Both Microsoft and CrowdStrike jumped into action. Microsoft confirmed they were investigating the issue and working to minimize the impact, while CrowdStrike started rolling back the problematic update globally.

With United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and multiple other industries working to restore normal service days later, the true scale of the Microsoft Outage outage can only be known over time. Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz issued a statement shortly after the incident arose, acknowledging the company’s responsbility for the crash and committing to rectifying the situation. However, it’s still unclear who will pick up the cheque for the billions of dollars in disruption caused by the issue.

2. Facebook (META) October 2021

Remember that Monday back in October 2021? The one where you couldn’t scroll through Facebook, message your friends, or even check in on Instagram?

It all started with a routine maintenance job gone wrong. Facebook was trying to check its global network capacity, but a mistake in the command ultimately shut down the entire system.

This meant no Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, not to mention all the other apps that rely on Facebook logins. Millions were without their usual social media fix. Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, was flooded with over 10 million problem reports, logging outages across critical computer systems. Considering Facebook has billions of users, the number affected was higher.

The outage wasn’t just a social inconvenience; it had real financial consequences. According to Bloomberg, Facebook lost $47.3 billion in market value during the downtime. That’s a hit that even a tech giant like Facebook feels. Even Mark Zuckerberg took a financial blow, losing an estimated $6 billion from his wealth.

The outage lasted six to seven hours, which felt like an eternity for anyone who relies on these platforms to stay connected. The root cause? A simple mistake on Facebook’s part. A system bug prevented Facebook from stopping the disruptive command.

The full impact of this event is hard to measure, but it’s safe to say it caused major disruptions for businesses and individuals. Maybe next time, Facebook will double-check those maintenance commands.

3. Fastly (FSLY) June 8th, 2021

Back in July 2021, Fastly, a company you might not recognize by name but one that plays a critical role in delivering content across the web, experienced a 1-hour outage.

The incident unfolded when a Fastly customer made a routine change in their settings. Unfortunately, this seemingly harmless tweak triggered a dormant bug within Fastly’s software, throwing a wrench into their entire operation. The result? Websites like The New York Times, BBC, CNN, and the UK government’s portal went dark for nearly an hour. Millions of users were left in the lurch, refreshing their screens and wondering what went wrong.

Thankfully, Fastly’s team sprung into action and got 95% of their network back online within 49 minutes. But the impact of that hour-long outage was far-reaching. News outlets missed crucial updates, online stores faced potential sales losses, and countless people were frustrated by the disruption.

While the exact financial toll remains unclear, estimates from Wolfcast’s post suggest the outage might have cost digital platforms $150 million.

For more on the outage, Fastly summarized the events of that day in their blog.

4. British Airways (IAG) May 28th, 2017

Imagine you’re planning a trip, all set for a smooth journey. Suddenly, your travel plans get thrown into chaos. In 2017, a significant outage at British Airways (BA) affected thousands of passengers. The culprit? A seemingly simple mistake. An engineer at a data center near London’s Heathrow Airport accidentally disconnected a power supply. While reconnecting it, a power surge resulted in significant damage, crashing BA’s systems.

The outage wasn’t just an inconvenience. It had a domino effect. Over two days, May 27th and 28th, grounding nearly 1,000 flights. London’s airport terminals overflowed with over 75,000 stranded passengers. The outage extended beyond flight disruptions. Passengers couldn’t access the booking system, and baggage handling became a nightmare.

The aftermath was costly. Beyond the lost revenue, BA had to compensate thousands of passengers. According to estimates by Data Center Knowledge, the outage set them back $102 million. This incident is a stark reminder of how critical data centers are for modern businesses, especially those in the transportation industry. Downtime doesn’t just affect online shopping or entertainment; it can disrupt travel plans and leave passengers in a bind.

5. Google (GOOG) December 14th, 2020

When Google sneezes, the internet catches a cold. That was the experience on December 14, 2020.

It all started with a storage problem. Google’s authentication system ran out of space. It may sound like a simple glitch, but the lack of storage meant the system couldn’t free up space automatically and crashed, locking out millions of users.

For 45 minutes, the world went dark. Gmail went silent, YouTube went blank, and Google Drive became a digital ghost town. For Google-dependent users, the outage was a frustrating interruption.

This outage wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was one of the biggest internet meltdowns ever and with good reason. Businesses likely faced disruptions and even financial losses. Just imagine the missed emails, delayed projects, and frustrated customers. According to Fox Business, Google lost $1.7 million in ad revenue during the YouTube outage.

6. Dyn (DYN) October 21st, 2016

In October 2016, a series of attacks on Dyn caused an internet outage that affected much of North America and Europe. At the time, Dyn was a company that handled important internet tasks like managing data traffic and acting as a domain name system (DNS) provider.

Here’s where things went wrong. Dyn became the target of a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Imagine millions of prank calls flooding a business phone line, making it impossible for anyone to get through. In this case, the attackers overwhelmed Dyn’s servers with numerous requests, effectively taking them offline.

Big companies like Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Airbnb, Amazon, and the PlayStation Network all relied on Dyn for their DNS services. With Dyn down, these popular websites became unreachable for many users.

The culprit behind the attack? Malicious software called Mirai. It infected everyday devices like printers, cameras, and even baby monitors. These unsuspecting devices became part of a massive botnet, unknowingly launching the attack that took down a significant portion of the internet.

While the exact impact on businesses is unclear, Cover Link reports that organizations spend an average of $2.5 million recovering from DDoD attacks. Dyn likely lost millions in revenue, and many industries relying on those affected websites probably faced financial losses.

7. Spotify and Discord, March 8, 2022

The outage started at around 1 pm Eastern Time with minor issues. Logins weren’t working, and support pages seemed unstable. But within half an hour, it escalated quickly. Applications started failing to connect, messages wouldn’t send, and frustration mounted.

For two whole hours, the Spotify silence stretched on. No music for your commute, no chats with your friends. Then, a glimmer of hope. Google Cloud, the service provider for both Spotify and Discord, announced they’d identified a malfunctioning component in their system. It seems like a glitch on their end caused a domino effect, taking down these two popular platforms.

Thankfully, Discord was back online by around 3:41 PM Eastern Time. Spotify took a little longer, but by 4 p.m., music lovers everywhere could finally hit play again.

The full impact of the outage remains unclear, but with millions of users on both platforms, it’s safe to say it caused some disruption.

8. Twitter and Instagram July 14, 2022

It was July 14th, 2022, and social media took a double tumble. X, then Twitter, was the first to go down. Uploading tweets and even logging in became impossible. This wasn’t Twitter’s first rodeo; they’d already faced outages in February due to a technical bug. Users weren’t exactly thrilled.

Thankfully, the silence wasn’t deafening for long. After 40 frustrating minutes, Twitter flickered back to life, blaming internal systems trouble. But just as users settled back in, another notification popped up – Instagram was down too. Users had trouble accessing feeds, sending messages, and launching the app. Instagram users ironically reported the outage on X.

Thankfully, Instagram resolved its issues within a few hours. However, their troubles weren’t over. Another bug caused accidental account lockouts and suspensions in October of the same year. By the time the platform recovered, many large accounts had lost millions of followers.

9. Amazon Web Services (AMZN) 2017 and 2020

Amazon, the tech giant we rely on, hasn’t been immune to outages. And guess what? When their house goes dark, many others do. Many websites depend on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud storage services. So, when AWS goes down, everyone from Apple to your favorite money transfer app feels the pain.

2017’s Amazon outage started with a human mistake. As Data Center Knowledge highlights, an engineer at AWS was trying to fix a billing issue, but a simple typo in command took down the cloud for hours. That one wrong keystroke cost companies over $150 million. Crazy, right?

Fast forward to December 2021, and AWS had another outage. This time, it wasn’t just your usual suspects like Disney+ and Spotify that went down. Even Alexa started acting weird. It gets worse. According to CNBC, schools had to cancel exams because they couldn’t access the online platforms they were using. Talk about a stressful situation!

And here’s the kicker: December’s outage was the third of that month for AWS. Power failures caused all three at one of their data centers. The outage’s extensive reach made it nearly impossible to quantify the financial damage, with TFIR estimating at least a billion dollars in economic loss.

10. Comcast November (CMCSA) 2021

On Tuesday, November 9th, 2021, a massive internet outage hit Comcast customers across the US. The source? A two-hour malfunction in Comcast’s San Francisco backbone.

Major cities like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. reported outages. Down Detector saw a surge of over 40,000 reports. Many customers were left offline for hours, with some facing potential multi-hour waits for restoration.

For many working from home during the pandemic, this outage meant a frustrating halt to productivity.

What causes internet outages?

Various factors lead to internet outages. Human error or environmental factors may cause internet disruptions. Accidental damage to cables, fiber lines, or towers during construction or by animals can knock out your service. Power outages can also disrupt internet equipment.

Technical glitches are another culprit. Software bugs, outdated equipment failures, or even human mistakes during network maintenance can lead to temporary outages. Malicious actors can also be a problem, launching attacks to overwhelm servers and cause disruptions.

Mother Nature also causes internet outages. Storms, floods, earthquakes, and other extreme weather events can damage infrastructure and disrupt internet services.

How to avoid internet outages

While you can’t prevent every outage, there are ways to minimize those frustrating moments. Researching internet service providers (ISPs) in your area is vital. Look into their outage history and what customers say about them online. Reviews can be a valuable resource to identify reliable providers.

Having a backup plan can also be a lifesaver. Consider a secondary internet connection, like a mobile hotspot, to get you online during outages.

Investing in a quality router is another smart move. A reliable router strengthens the connection within your home network. It acts as the middleman, ensuring everything flows smoothly between your devices and the internet.

Finally, stay informed. Monitor your ISP’s website or social media for updates on outages. They’ll typically communicate any issues and provide an estimated timeline for restoration.

Closing thoughts

As the world becomes more reliant on centralized internet services, widespread outages are likely to become more severe. Internet outages can disrupt your workflow, but by familiarizing yourself with the possible triggers and adopting proactive measures, you can ensure uninterrupted connectivity. Researching reliable providers, having backup options, and keeping your equipment up-to-date can minimize downtime and make your online experience smoother. Remember, a strong internet connection is about having the right equipment, keeping the software fresh, and being prepared for anything.

About the author

Sal Miah

Sal is a seasoned writer with a deep expertise in blockchain, cryptocurrency and the ever-evolving Web3 landscape. Since 2018, Sal has crafted content for several blue-chip organizations, drawing on a strong foundation in finance and trading to bring clarity and insight to complex topics.

Read more