Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp global outage

Risk:
high
Damage:
high
Platform(s):
Social Media
Advisory ID:
ngCERT-2021-0054
Version:
N/A
CVE:
N/A
Published:
October 4, 2021

Summary


Some social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are currently experiencing technical downtime due to unknown causes resulting to a major global outage with many users unable to use the platforms. The outage is affecting every Facebook owned platforms according to data on Downdetector and Twitter. These Facebook owned Platforms are Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The outages appear to have started around 16:40pm and all services on the affected platforms remain inaccessible. The outages generated trends on Twitter as users flocked to the competing social network to see if other users were affected by the downtime. Humorously, the hashtag “#DeleteFacebook” is also trending on Twitter as Facebook battles negative reactions to its current challenge.

Description & Consequence


Cybercrime reporters attribute this global outage to a major DNS problem as DNS allows web addresses to take users to their desired web location which is currently inaccessible. A cybercrime reporter also explained that the DNS records that tell devices how to find Facebook and Instagram got withdrawn this morning from the global routing cables and it is unclear how this occurred. However, security experts tracking the situation observed that the outage was likely triggered by configuration error redirecting Facebook servers. It is also likely that the challenges could be as a result of an internal mistake, though sabotage by an insider could be theoretically possible.

An outside hack was viewed as less likely. A massive denial-of-service attack that could overwhelm one of the world's most popular sites, on the other hand, would require either coordination among powerful criminal groups or a very innovative technique.

The outage is potentially very serious for users who rely on these platforms for their businesses. Also, members of the public could be exposed to cybercriminals in an attempt to look for alternative platforms.

Solution


Facebook is currently working to restore services to normal as quickly as possible and has apologized for any inconvenience through their official twitter handle.

Members of the public are advised to use other trusted social media platforms such as signal, telegram and google platforms to do their businesses pending when the issue is resolved.

Members of the public are also advised to desist from using untrusted social media platforms that could compromise their security.

Reference


  1. https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-instagram-down-thousands-users-downdetectorcom-2021-10-04/ 
  2. https://news.sky.com/story/live-updates-as-whatsapp-facebook-and-instagram-down-in-major-outage-12426111 
  3. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/facebook-down-instagram-whatsapp-today-b1932059.html 

Revision


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