Web sites of airlines, banks, tech firms back online after global outage

*Cloud services provider Akamai Technologies discloses it has implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Sequel to the recent global outage of the Information Superhighway, several airlines, banks, and technology Web sites were returning online afternoon Thursday, July 22, 2021.

The brief outage was the third such widespread incident noted in just a span of two months, raising alarms across social media, agency report said.

It was gathered that Web sites of Delta Air Lines, Costco Wholesale Corp, American Express and Home Depot were down, displaying domain name system (DNS) service errors.

Cloud services provider Akamai Technologies, in a blog post, stated it had given an alert on its “Edge DNS” service incident, noting a “partial outage” on its Web site.

The company said: “We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations.”

Oracle Corporation said it was monitoring the global issue related to a cloud-based DNS solution provider impacting access to many Internet resources, including its own cloud services.

DNS is a service that translates readable domain names to machine readable IP addresses, connecting it to a server and delivering the requested page on the user’s phone or laptop.

In June this year, multiple outages also hit the social media platforms, government and news Web sites across the globe, with some reports pointing to a glitch at US-based cloud computing service providers, report noted.

About 3,500 users reported issues with Airbnb’s Web site, while nearly 1,500 Home Depot users reported problems, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.

Specialty firm investigates the issue

In view of how Web sites were knocked offline Thursday, Network specialty firm Akamai has said that it is investigating an issue with its service.

The scope and cause of the trouble was not disclosed, but reports of internet outages from locations around the world spiked at website Downdetector.

Akamai in response to an AFP inquiry, stated: “We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations.

“We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated.”

The latest disruption reportedly came just weeks after Akamai was at the heart of a major online outage that hit bank and airline Web sites on both sides of the Pacific.

Akamai had said around 500 of its clients were briefly knocked offline on because of a problem with one of its online security products.

The incidents draw attention to the stability of economically vital online platforms and the key role that a handful of little-known Content Delivery Network (CDN) companies play in keeping the web running.

US media and government Web sites, including the White House, New York Times, Reddit and Amazon were temporarily hit after a glitch with cloud computing services provider Fastly June 2021.

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