Some high-profile websites, such as X and ChatGPT, have gone down for some users due to problems affecting major internet infrastructure firm, Cloudflare. Cloudflare is a U.S.-based web infrastructure and cybersecurity company that helps keep websites fast, secure, and online.
Cloudflare operates hundreds of data centers worldwide, speeding up websites by caching content closer to users. It shields websites from cyberattacks, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, by filtering malicious traffic. It shields websites from cyberattacks, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, by filtering malicious traffic. Cloudflare sits between a website and its visitors, managing traffic flow and protecting servers from overload.
Thousands of users began reporting issues with the sites, as well as other services, to outage monitoring site Downdetector shortly after 11:30 GMT on Tuesday.
Cloudflare said in a statement it had seen “a spike in unusual traffic to one of Cloudflare’s services beginning at 11:20 UTC” which had caused errors for traffic passing through its network.
“We do not yet know the cause of the spike in unusual traffic,” it said, adding “we are all hands-on deck to make sure all traffic is served without errors.”
On its homepage, X is displaying a message for some users saying there is a problem with its internal server, as a result of an “error” originating with Cloudflare.
ChatGPT’s site was also displaying an error message telling some users: “please unblock challenges cloudflare.com to proceed.”
This is a developing story. Watch this space for more information.
