This Week's Internet Blackout Was Caused By A Single User Updating Their Settings

By Staff Reporter
Posted on 06/10/21 | News Source: PC Gamer

A bug, dormant since mid-May, was triggered by a very specific user configuration update.

Fastly, one of the internet's largest content delivery networks (CDN), went down this Tuesday, resulting in millions of users being unable to access certain websites. 85% of the network covered by Fastly returned errors on Tuesday morning, and it was all caused by a single user configuration update that uncovered a bug that had laid dormant in Fastly's infrastructure since mid-May.

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In an interview with The Guardian, the head of infrastructure and engineering at Fastly, Nick Rockwell, explained what had actually happened to bring down its services and also apologized for the disruption. It feels rare for such a big company to be so transparent about this, but it's certainly something to welcome.

Content delivery networks operate on the principle that the internet is faster and more stable if the users are physically closer to them. This results in faster downloads, better security, and a host of other features.

It also means there's a point of failure if something goes wrong though, and that's exactly what happened on June 8. Read more at PC Gamer