An Internet Breakdown Shut Down PlayStation Network

On July 23, a bug disrupted Akamai’s DNS system, triggering a massive internet outrage among numerous online services.

According to USA Today, companies that bumped into online issues include UPS, FedEx, airlines Delta and Southwest, financial sites Charles Schwab, US Bank and Fidelity, HBO Max, Costco, EA, and tech companies Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Game services PlayStation Network and Stream PC were also under the influence. DownDetector reported that players, without any precautions, were kicked out of games like Fortnite and Call of Duty. Sony’s PSN status page later acknowledged the issue: “PlayStation Network services are up and running, but there are external, internet-wide issues that might affect your experience,” the company wrote.

It turned out the Akami was the source of the internet breakdown. At about 12:45 p.m. EST, Akamai stated on Twitter that they were facing an internet disruption. They said they “have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations.”

Akamai also confirmed that the internet outage didn’t result from a cyberattack.

In the meantime, network intelligence company, Thousandeyes, posted its analysis of the issue on Twitter. “From ~8:38am PT – 9:45am PT, Akamai’s Edgekey DNS service—a critical dependency to direct users to its CDN edge—suffered an outage that prevented users around the globe from reaching its customers’ sites,” they wrote. “Users attempting to reach sites hosted by Akamai would have received error messages indicating that the requested URL could not be resolved to an IP address.”

At about 4:46 EST, Akamai announced that the problem was resolved. They reported that it was a software configuration update that disrupted the DNS system, the system that directs browsers to websites. This disfunction subsequently caused the internet disruption. After Akamai rolled the update back, the service return to normal operations.

Akamai also reassured its customers that it was not a cyberattack against the platform.