Cloudflare apologise after outage take down X, ChatGPT and websites

Some high-profile websites, wey include X and ChatGPT, bin go down for some users sake of problems wey affect major internet infrastructure firm, Cloudflare.

Thousands of users report issues wit X and oda services to outage monitoring site Downdetector shortly afta 11:30 GMT on Tuesday, 18 November.

Cloudflare tok say di "significant outage" bin occur afta one configuration file wey dey designed to handle threat traffic no work as intended and e "trigger a crash" for dia software wey dey handle traffic for dia wider services.

"We apologise to our customers plus di Internet in general for letting you down today," dem tok for statement.

"Given di importance of Cloudflars services, no outage dey acceptable," di company add.

Dem say while dem don resolve some issues, some services still fit encounter errors as dem come back online.

Plenty apps and websites bin go down sake of di outage.

Users report say dem face delays or technical issues wen dem dey try access services like Grindr, Zoom and Canva.

Meanwhile, social media platform X bin show one message on dia homepage for some users wey say problem bin dey wit dia internal server sake of "error" wey come from Cloudflare.

ChatGPT site bin also show one error message wey bin tell some users: "please unblock challenges cloudflare.com to proceed."

Wetin be Cloudflare

Cloudflare na big provider of internet security across di world, dem dey carry out services like checking visitor connections to sites wey dey come from humans rather dan bots.

Dem say 20% of all websites worldwide dey use dia services in some form.

Downdetector sef - one site wey many users dey visit wen sites stop to dey load or appear to get issues - also show one error message as many pipo bin dey try to access am on Tuesday.

Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, wey dey monitor di connectivity of web services, say di outage "point to one catastrophic disruption to Cloudflare infrastructure".

"Wetin dey striking na how much of di internet dey hide behind Cloudflare infrastructure to avoid denial of service attacks in recent years," e tell BBC, - e highlight how di company dey aim to protect sites against malicious attempts to overwhelm dem wit traffic requests.

E say however, as a result of dis - and di convenience of dia services - e don also become "one of di internet largest single points of failure."

Cloudflare don stress say di problem na di result of a technical problem.

"To be clear, evidence no dey say dis na di result of attack or say e dey caused by malicious activity," dem tok for statement.

Di company share price bin trade around 3% lower shortly afta 15:00 GMT.

Issues wey dey affect Cloudflare services come afta one outage wey affect Amazon Web Services last month see more dan 1,000 sites and apps knock offline.

Anoda major web services provider, Microsoft Azure, bin also dey affected shortly after.

"Di outages we don witness dis last few months don once again highlight di reliance on dis fragile networks," Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor for ESET tok.

"Companies often dey forced to heavily rely on di likes of Cloudflare, Microsoft, and Amazon for hosting dia websites and services, as many oda options no dey."