The internet is at war (and no one told you): clouds in flames, dns collapse and a tsunami of hostile traffic
The internet is at war (and no one told you): clouds in flames, dns collapse and a tsunami of hostile traffic When two of the largest cloud platforms on the planet stumble almost back-to-back, something far bigger is going on. In the past 10 days we’ve seen: Microsoft Azure global outage (October 29): A wide-scale interruption affecting Microsoft 365, Xbox, Azure portals and major retailers/airlines. Microsoft confirmed a configuration change issue, and multiple outlets identify it as a DNS & edge-network fault. Associated Press: “Microsoft deploys a fix to Azure cloud service that’s hit with outage” (Oct 29) -Source:https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-azure-downdetector-service-disruption-0deffbd09c09ca4640c2f5452a9e483e The Verge: “Microsoft says it’s recovering after Azure outage took down 365, Xbox, and Starbucks”. Source:https://www.theverge.com/news/809142/microsoft-azure-xbox-365-is-down-outage DatacenterKnowledge: “Microsoft Azure experiencing outage due to DNS issue”. Source:https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/outages/microsoft-azure-outage-web-services-down-as-dns-issue-unfolds BleepingComputer: “DNS outage impacts Azure and Microsoft 365 services”. Source:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-dns-outage-impacts-azure-and-microsoft-365-services/ Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage (October 20): Amazon’s cloud suffered a significant fault beginning in the US-EAST-1 region with DNS resolution issues tied to their DynamoDB service. Thousands of customer services affected globally. The Guardian: “Amazon reveals cause of AWS outage that took everything from banks to smart beds offline”. Source:https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/24/amazon-reveals-cause-of-aws-outage The Register: “Today is when Amazon brain drain finally caught up with AWS”. Source:https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/20/aws_outage_amazon_brain_drain_corey_quinn/ Network World: “AWS DNS error hits DynamoDB, causing problems for multiple services and customers”. Source:https://www.networkworld.com/article/4075446/aws-dns-error-hits-dynamodb-causing-problems-for-multiple-services-and-customers.html Tom’s Guide: “How the AWS outage happened — and why it’s breaking the internet”. Source:https://www.tomsguide.com/tech/how-the-aws-outage-happened-and-why-its-breaking-the-internet CRN: “AWS’ 15-Hour Outage: 5 Big AI, DNS, EC2 And Data Center Keys To Know”. Source:https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2025/aws-15-hour-outage-5-big-ai-dns-ec2-and-data-center-keys-to-know The Verge (news): “Major AWS outage took down Fortnite, Alexa, Snapchat, and more”. Source:https://www.theverge.com/news/802486/aws-outage-alexa-fortnite-snapchat-offline “Coincidence?” Maybe. But underground numbers show growing pressure on DNS and availability: Record peaks of DDoS and denial-of-service type attacks continue to be reported, targeting cloud/CDN infrastructure and exposing increased fragility of big-cloud dependency. Reports highlight origins of large scale hostile traffic include Russia and China, among others. What types of attacks are happening (and why DNS is suffering) DNS Amplification/Reflection: Using open resolvers to multiply volume & direct to the victim (layer 3/4). SYN/ACK/UDP floods at high packet rate: Overwhelming network stacks/load‐balancers. L7/HTTP floods (application layer): Traffic that “looks legitimate” but overwhelms front‐door CDNs like Azure Front Door, etc. Attacks on DNS resolution/management chain: Automation, propagation failures, mis-configurations amplify damage under load—exactly what we see in the AWS and Azure incidents above. What we must do NOW (red-alert mode) Decouple DNS from hosting provider and migrate to fully-managed Anycast DNS with DNSSEC, with multi-vendor redundancy. Use Multi-Region + Multi-CDN architecture with automatic failover & circuit‐breaker logic. Deploy DDoS protection in layers (L3/4/7) with adaptive rate-limiting and regular flood-drills. Telemetry of DNS resolution and propagation SLOs (alert on NXDOMAIN/servfail within minutes). Backup identity/access plan: if your IdP/CDP fails, ensure minimal operations survive offline. Strict change governance: feature flags for DNS/edge config, rollback automation, propagation quarantine. Active threat-intelligence: monitor ASNs, geo‐blocks of high risk, challenge-pages when under attack. Transforming daily challenges into global solutions. Outview ensures your business stays secure, efficient, and ready for whatever comes next. Created by Glaycon Ferreira