Quick overview

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A significant outage on Cloudflare affected websites globally, including X and ChatGPT, for several hours on Tuesday. The websites for the chief U.S. energy regulator and the New Jersey transit authority were also impacted. Many services were operational again by 10 a.m. in New York

Cloudflare detected a “spike in unusual traffic” to one of its services, which resulted in errors for some traffic passing through its network, according to a company spokesperson. Jackie Dutton, a spokesperson for Cloudflare, stated that it was resolved in four hours.

The issue stemmed from a configuration file that is automatically generated to manage threat traffic; it grew beyond the expected size of entries and caused a crash in the software system managing traffic for several Cloudflare services. Dutton noted that there was no evidence of malicious activity or a cyberattack.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s website, which oversees utilities, power traders, and U.S. electricity markets, was also unavailable. This website provides access to regulatory cases and filings relevant to various businesses, lawyers, and regulators. Additionally, the websites of major international food and agricultural companies, such as Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Co., went down

According to a representative from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Cloudflare’s outage also impacted New York City’s transit system. Due to the issue affecting multiple websites, the MTA advised riders to use its apps, MTAapp or TrainTime, for real-time transit status and trip planning. The MTA operates the city’s buses, commuter rails, and subways, making it the largest public transportation system in the United States.