39 incidenti documentati

La storia completa di
Interruzioni Internet globali

Dal crollo di ARPANET del 1980 ai tagli dei cavi sottomarini di oggi: una registrazione cronologica degli incidenti che hanno plasmato il modo in cui costruiamo reti resilienti.

Incidenti BGP Errori DNS Tagli di cavi Interruzioni del cloud Attacchi DDoS Arresti
Scorri per esplorare
2020s
Dec 5, 2025

Cloudflare brief global disruption from configuration error (reported)

≈25 minutes (reported)
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Human error, Misconfiguration
Bad config deployment affected request handling; rollback resolved quickly (reported).
"Short-lived outages/errors across many proxied sites."
CDN/Cloud services
Oct 19, 2025

AWS us-east-1 major cascade outage (DynamoDB/EC2) (reported)

≈15 hours (reported)
Impatto
Global (services depending on us-east-1)
Causa ultima
Software bug, Systemic cascade
Prior response claimed DynamoDB DNS/discovery issue cascaded into EC2 control plane disruption; not verified here.
"Large downstream app outages and delayed autoscaling/instance launches (reported)."
Cloud provider
Sep 6, 2025

Red Sea cable cuts (SMW4 & IMEWE) (reported)

Weeks (repairs)
Impatto
Middle East, South Asia, East Africa, Europe–Asia transit
Causa ultima
Unknown, Possible sabotage, Human error
Multiple cables cut; attribution unclear.
"Regional slowdowns and rerouting/latency increase."
Submarine cables
Jul 24, 2025

Starlink global outage (core software services failure) (reported)

≈2.5 hours (reported)
Impatto
Global Starlink footprint
Causa ultima
Unknown, Software bug (suspected)
Reported failure of internal software services operating the core network (provider statement reported by analysts).
"Connectivity loss for satellite users."
Satellite ISP (LEO)
Jun 12, 2025

Cloudflare outage attributed to Workers KV incident (reported)

≈2.5 hours (reported)
Impatto
Global (Cloudflare customers)
Causa ultima
Software bug, Change error
Prior response claimed Workers KV cascade; not verified here.
"Customer API/control plane disruption; some site/app errors."
CDN/Cloud services Control plane / distributed storage
May 20, 2025

Global routing instability from malformed BGP attribute (Prefix-SID) (reported)

Minutes (reported)
Impatto
Global (multi-AS)
Causa ultima
Software bug, Misconfiguration
Malformed BGP attribute propagated; certain vendors allegedly crashed/reset sessions.
"Brief reachability issues for some networks; high routing churn."
BGP routing Router software interoperability
Jan 15, 2025

Targeted cable incidents around Taiwan (reported)

Weeks for local restoration (reported)
Impatto
Taiwan and offshore islands (reported)
Causa ultima
Possible sabotage, Hardware/physical failure
Incidents attributed to vessel activity; intent disputed.
"Local outages and increased geopolitical concern."
Submarine cables
Nov 17, 2024

Baltic Sea subsea cable disruptions (reported sabotage)

Repairs over weeks (reported); immediate impact rerouted
Impatto
Northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, Baltics, Germany links)
Causa ultima
Unknown, Possible sabotage
Near-simultaneous cable cuts raised suspicion; attribution uncertain.
"Reduced capacity and higher latency; national security concern."
Submarine cables
May 12, 2024

East Africa subsea cable damage (SEACOM & EASSy) (reported)

Weeks (repairs into early June)
Impatto
East and Southern Africa
Causa ultima
Human error, Hardware/physical failure
Anchor drag / storm-related incident damaged multiple cables.
"Major slowdowns and partial outages; increased latency; business disruption."
Submarine cables
Feb 9, 2024

Red Sea subsea cable cuts linked to Rubymar (AAE-1 / EIG / SEACOM) (reported)

Weeks (repairs)
Impatto
Middle East, South Asia, East Africa, Europe–Asia transit
Causa ultima
Human error, Conflict-related incident
Anchor drag from damaged/drifting vessel reportedly severed multiple cables.
"Regional slowdown/outages; rerouting and latency spikes."
Submarine cables
Jan 3, 2024

Orange Spain routing registry compromise / BGP disruption

Hours (reported)
Impatto
Spain (primarily)
Causa ultima
Cyberattack / credential compromise
RIPE registry account compromise enabled route origin record changes causing routing issues.
"Connectivity disruption for ISP customers and hosted services."
BGP routing IRR/RPKI management
Nov 2, 2023

Portland (Flexential) data center power failure impacts Cloudflare & Workday

Hours to ~1 day+ for full restoration (varied by service)
Impatto
Global services with dependencies; physical location Portland, OR (USA)
Causa ultima
Hardware failure
Power system failure and cascading generator/utility issues caused facility-wide outage.
"Loss of visibility/control for customers; SaaS downtime for enterprises."
Data center/power infrastructure Cloud/CDN control-plane
Jun 13, 2023

AWS us-east-1 outage (Lambda-related cascading impacts)

≈2 hours (reported)
Impatto
Global (apps depending on us-east-1)
Causa ultima
Software bug
Lambda capacity-management bug triggered at scale, affecting dependent AWS services.
"App outages and degraded performance across multiple brands."
Cloud provider Serverless platform
May 9, 2023

Pakistan mobile internet shutdown (political unrest)

≈3 days (reported)
Impatto
Pakistan (nationwide)
Causa ultima
Political or regulatory action
Government ordered mobile networks offline; social platforms blocked during unrest.
"Major societal and economic disruption; suppressed information flow."
Government shutdown Mobile data
Apr 4, 2023

Virgin Media UK ISP outages (BGP withdrawals/internal failure)

Two major outages (hours each) reported same day
Impatto
United Kingdom
Causa ultima
Unknown, Routing/control-plane failure (suspected)
Routes withdrawn and traffic dropped at edge; internal failure led to customer disconnects.
"Nationwide consumer/business connectivity disruption."
ISP BGP routing
Feb 2, 2023

Matsu Islands (Taiwan) dual undersea cable cuts

Weeks (reported)
Impatto
Matsu Islands (Taiwan)
Causa ultima
Hardware/physical failure, Possible sabotage
Two cables severed in early February; attributed to vessel activity (disputed intent).
"Severe local connectivity loss; reliance on microwave/satellite fallback."
Submarine cable
Jan 25, 2023

Microsoft Azure & Microsoft 365 global outage (WAN routing incident)

Several hours (reported)
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Misconfiguration, Change error
Microsoft WAN routing change caused instability/route flaps impacting Azure and M365 services.
"Cloud and productivity suite disruptions affecting organizations worldwide."
Cloud provider WAN routing/BGP
Oct 25, 2022

Sudan protest-related national internet shutdown

≈8 hours (reported)
Impatto
Sudan (nationwide)
Causa ultima
Political or regulatory action
Authorities reduced/disabled connectivity during protests.
"Information suppression and disruption to services."
Government shutdown
Oct 19, 2022

Shetland Islands submarine cable cut (SHEFA-2)

≈14.5 hours (reported)
Impatto
Shetland Islands, Scotland (UK)
Causa ultima
Human error, Hardware/physical failure
Cable severed (often attributed to anchor/fishing activity).
"Local isolation; emergency services needed backups."
Submarine cable
Sep 1, 2022

Iran protest-related internet shutdowns (curfews and regional blackouts)

Recurring daily hours + multi-day regional events
Impatto
Iran (nationwide and regional)
Causa ultima
Political or regulatory action
Authorities restricted/disabled mobile internet and platforms during protests.
"Communication suppression and economic disruption."
Government shutdown Mobile networks
Jul 8, 2022

Rogers Communications nationwide outage (Canada)

≈19–24 hours (major disruption)
Impatto
Canada (nationwide)
Causa ultima
Human error, Misconfiguration
Maintenance change removed a routing filter and triggered cascading routing/control-plane failures.
"Payment disruptions, emergency-call impacts, widespread societal disruption."
ISP/telecom core
Oct 4, 2021

Facebook/Meta global outage (BGP + DNS reachability)

≈6 hours
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Human error, Misconfiguration
Backbone maintenance change withdrew BGP routes; DNS and internal tooling became unreachable, complicating recovery.
"Global disruption of messaging/social communications; business disruptions."
BGP routing DNS Private backbone
2010s
Jun 24, 2019

Verizon BGP route leak impacting Cloudflare (and others)

≈1–2 hours
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Misconfiguration, Filtering failure
Customer route leak propagated through Verizon due to insufficient filtering; misrouting/blackholing ensued.
"Partial unreachability/slowness for many services; routing community alarm."
BGP routing
Feb 28, 2017

AWS S3 outage (us-east-1) from operator error

≈4 hours
Impatto
Global (customers relying on us-east-1)
Causa ultima
Human error, Operational tooling/controls gap
Incorrect parameter in internal tool took down more S3 subsystems than intended; slow index recovery.
"Major web/app disruptions due to reliance on S3 in a single region."
Cloud provider Storage service
Oct 21, 2016

Dyn DNS DDoS (Mirai botnet)

Intermittent over the day (multiple waves)
Impatto
North America, Europe, Global users of affected sites
Causa ultima
Cyberattack / DDoS
IoT botnet traffic overwhelmed Dyn’s DNS infrastructure.
"Widespread inability to resolve domains for major services."
DNS DDoS
Jan 27, 2011

Egypt nationwide internet shutdown (Arab Spring)

≈5 days (major blackout)
Impatto
Egypt (nationwide)
Causa ultima
Political or regulatory action
Government ordered ISPs to disconnect and withdraw routes to suppress protests.
"Severe societal and economic disruption; communications blackout."
Government shutdown BGP withdrawals
Apr 8, 2010

China Telecom large-scale route leak/hijack (reported)

≈18 minutes (often reported)
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Misconfiguration, Disputed
Large number of prefixes announced via China Telecom; traffic detoured. Intent disputed.
"Potential traffic detours and risk of interception; user-visible impact unclear."
BGP routing
2000s
Feb 24, 2008

YouTube global outage via Pakistan Telecom BGP hijack

≈2 hours
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Political or regulatory action, Misconfiguration, Upstream filtering failure
Domestic blocking route advertised globally due to upstream propagation and insufficient filtering.
"Global unreachability of YouTube during incident window."
BGP routing Policy-driven filtering leak
Jan 30, 2008

Mediterranean & Gulf submarine cable cuts (Middle East/South Asia disruption)

Days to weeks (repair dependent)
Impatto
Middle East, North Africa, South Asia (multi-country)
Causa ultima
Hardware/physical failure, Human error, Unknown
Multiple cable faults/cuts; some attributed to anchor drag, some unclear.
"Severe bandwidth reduction and international connectivity degradation."
Submarine cables
Dec 26, 2006

Taiwan (Hengchun) earthquake submarine cable breaks

Weeks (full repair reportedly ~49 days)
Impatto
East Asia / Asia-Pacific (Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, etc.)
Causa ultima
Natural disaster
Undersea earthquake and landslides severed multiple major cables near Taiwan/Luzon Strait.
"Severe international connectivity degradation; high latency due to reroutes."
Submarine cables International backbone
Jan 25, 2003

SQL Slammer worm

Hours (peak), with lingering effects over 1–2 days
Impatto
Global (notably Asia, North America, Europe)
Causa ultima
Cyberattack / malicious code, Software vulnerability
Worm exploited MS SQL Server vulnerability; explosive scanning caused congestion and outages.
"Severe congestion and widespread service disruptions."
Internet Cyber incident / traffic flood
1990s
May 19, 1998

Galaxy IV satellite failure

Days to ~1 week (varying by service)
Impatto
United States (nationwide), some Canada
Causa ultima
Hardware failure
Satellite control failure caused loss of service for pager/broadcast transponders.
"Mass pager outage affecting businesses and emergency communications."
Satellite communications
Apr 13, 1998

AT&T frame relay cloud outage

Up to ≈26 hours for some customers
Impatto
United States (nationwide corporate WAN customers)
Causa ultima
Software bug, Change error
Software upgrade failure and error flooding caused network-wide instability.
"Corporate WAN disconnects; disrupted financial and airline operations (reported)."
Enterprise data network (Frame Relay)
Jul 17, 1997

“.com/.net DNS” outage (Network Solutions zone file error)

≈4 hours
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Human error
Corrupted/incorrect zone file update disrupted resolution for large numbers of domains.
"Large-scale name resolution failures; widespread site/email disruption."
DNS (TLD name servers)
Apr 25, 1997

AS7007 BGP route leak

Hours (variously reported; not precisely captured here)
Impatto
Global
Causa ultima
Human error, Software bug, Misconfiguration
Misconfigured router and bug leaked more-specific routes and hijacked large portions of routing table.
"Widespread reachability problems due to misrouting/blackholing."
Internet backbone BGP routing
Jan 4, 1991

New York fiber cut disrupts multi-state communications

Hours (same-day restoration reported)
Impatto
US Northeast (New York, DC, Boston cited)
Causa ultima
Human error, Hardware/physical failure
Accidental severing of a major fiber trunk (construction/backhoe-style incident).
"Call blocking and disruptions to trading/aviation communications (reported)."
Fiber backbone (telecom/data)
Jan 15, 1990

AT&T long-distance network crash

≈9 hours
Impatto
United States (nationwide long-distance)
Causa ultima
Software bug
Faulty switch software update triggered cascading switch resets and signaling storms.
"Large-scale call failures; business disruption; delayed flights reported."
Telephony (PSTN long-distance) Switching network
1980s
Nov 2, 1988

Morris Worm outbreak

Days (major disruption over multiple days)
Impatto
Primarily US academic/military networks, Spillover impacts globally
Causa ultima
Cyberattack / malicious code, Software vulnerability, Human error
Self-replicating worm exploited weak passwords and vulnerabilities, saturating systems and networks.
"Severe network congestion and system outages; significant cleanup costs."
Internet (early TCP/IP) Cyber incident
Oct 27, 1980

ARPANET collapse (routing/IMP bug cascade)

≈4 hours
Impatto
United States (ARPANET nodes)
Causa ultima
Software bug
Status-message propagation and IMP error-handling/garbage-collection bug caused network-wide disruption.
"ARPANET connectivity loss across research sites."
Early Internet (ARPANET) Routing infrastructure
2025 Cloudflare brief global disruption from configuration error (reported)

Modelli nei dati

Decenni di guasti alla rete rivelano temi ricorrenti nel modo in cui Internet si rompe.

Causa più comune
Human error
13 incidenti
Decennio di punta
2020s
22 incidenti registrati
Totale documentato
39
Incidenti importanti
Intervallo di tempo
1980 – 2025
45 anni di storia

Cosa ci insegna la storia

Ogni grave interruzione lascia dietro di sé lezioni per la creazione di sistemi più resilienti.

L’errore umano è il filo conduttore

Dal crollo di AT&T del 1990 all'interruzione di Facebook del 2021, configurazioni errate ed errori operativi causano più interruzioni di qualsiasi altro fattore. La complessità delle reti moderne fa sì che un singolo errore di battitura possa riversarsi a livello globale.

BGP rimane il tallone d'Achille di Internet

Il Border Gateway Protocol che instrada il traffico tra le reti è stato progettato in un’era di fiducia implicita. Decenni dopo, le fughe di informazioni e i dirottamenti continuano perché l’adozione di misure di sicurezza come RPKI rimane incompleta.

L’infrastruttura fisica è sorprendentemente fragile

I cavi sottomarini trasportano il 95% dei dati intercontinentali, ma sono vulnerabili ad ancoraggi, terremoti e, sempre più spesso, a interferenze intenzionali. I punti critici geografici come il Mar Rosso rimangono punti critici di fallimento.

La concentrazione crea rischio sistemico

Quando AWS us-east-1 non funziona, metà di Internet se ne accorge. Quando Cloudflare ha un problema, milioni di siti web diventano irraggiungibili. I vantaggi in termini di efficienza derivanti dalla centralizzazione derivano da modalità di guasto fuori misura.

Non aspettare che la prossima interruzione ti colpisca

Latency Global monitora i tuoi servizi da oltre 70 località in tutto il mondo. Ricevi un avviso quando sorgono problemi, non quando i clienti si lamentano.

Inizia la prova gratuita

$ 5/mese • Nessun contratto • Annulla in qualsiasi momento