Cloudflare Alami Disturbance, Check Point Calls Internet Centralization Vulnerabilities

Web disruption due to Cloudflare network (photo: screenshot of voi.id)

JAKARTA Cloudflare experienced a disruption on Tuesday, November 18 night which caused a number of websites to be difficult to access. Apart from Voi.id, the ChatGPT and X websites are known to have experienced disruptions.

This problem is detrimental to millions of users in various parts of the world, including in Indonesia, at around 18.30 to 19.0 WIB. This problem was also highlighted by many parties, including cybersecurity firm Check Point Software.

Graeme Stewart, Head of the Public Sector of Check Point Software, stated that this disruption is similar to the problems that occurred in AWS and Azure some time ago. This issue also shows that Cloudflare has a big weakness even though the platform is efficient.

"When platforms as big as this experience disruption, the impact is widespread and fast, and everyone feels it all at once," Stewart said in a statement received by VOI on Wednesday, November 19.

Stewart explains that platforms that handle so much traffic, such as Cloudflare, are vulnerable to being targeted. In fact, accidental blackouts can also be exploited by attackers that have the potential to trigger intentional disruptions.

"Many organizations are still running everything through one route without adequate reserves. When the route fails, there is no backup," added Stewart.

Stewart concluded that although large platforms bring benefits, incidents like these show huge losses. According to him, Cloudflare needs to have a 'real diversity and redundancy in the system'.

Basically, problems that cause social media, news media, payment sites, to public information pages are difficult to access because DNS services are disrupted. This service translates domain names into IP addresses.

"When this service is disrupted, the browser fails to find addresses and connections to the server cut off. As a result, many websites and services become inaccessible even though the servers themselves operate," said Oded Vanunu, Head of Software Check Point Vulnerability Research.

Vanunu noted that Cloudflare operates a CDN network that accelerates tracing. The failure of CDN forces all requests to reach the original server. This increases the load on core infrastructure and slows down loading time.