Cloudflare said Friday (Dec. 5) that it resolved an incident in which its network became unavailable for several minutes earlier in the day.By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions .Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.The company first announce ...

Core Points - Several major websites, including Linkedin, Zoom, and Canva, experienced outages due to issues with Cloudflare, a web infrastructure provider [1][2] - Cloudflare reported that it was investigating problems with its Dashboard and related APIs, which resulted in a significant number of empty pages [1] - Despite implementing a fix, many websites remained inaccessible throughout the morning, with DownDetector recording over 4,500 reports of issues related to Cloudflare [2][3] Company Impact - Cloudflare provides network and security services for a substantial portion of the internet, claiming that around 20% of all websites utilize its services [3] - Previous outages in November affected over 10,000 users across various platforms, including X, Spotify, and ChatGPT, indicating a recurring issue with Cloudflare's services [3][4] - The company has faced similar challenges in the past, including a major outage in October linked to AWS, highlighting vulnerabilities in its service infrastructure [5] Industry Insights - The incident underscores the reliance on major providers like Cloudflare, where a failure can render thousands of websites unreachable, pointing to a significant single point of failure in the current internet infrastructure [6] - Cybersecurity experts emphasize the need for improvements in network design to mitigate risks associated with legacy systems that direct internet traffic [6]

Core Insights - Cloudflare experienced a significant outage affecting multiple major websites and applications, including Zoom, LinkedIn, Shopify, and Fortnite, leading to a decline in its shares during premarket trading [1][2] - The outage lasted nearly half an hour and was attributed to issues with the Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs, specifically a change in how the platform's firewall managed requests [1][2] - Cloudflare clarified that the incident was not a cyberattack but rather a proactive measure to address an industry-wide vulnerability disclosed earlier in the week [3] Company Impact - The outage resulted in a sharp increase in reports on Downdetector, indicating widespread disruption across various platforms [2] - Following the deployment of a fix, the number of outage reports significantly decreased, demonstrating the company's ability to respond quickly to technical issues [2] Industry Context - Cloudflare's role in managing internet traffic and preventing cyberattacks is critical, as many major websites rely on its services for security and performance [1]