- Server-related glitches at CDN provider Akamai caused some Australian banks and US airlines to go down on Thursday
- The outage is thought to have been caused by a glitch in software, rather than a cyberattack or vulnerability
- It’s the second major IT-related blackout in just over a week, after rival provider Fastly went down
- By late Thursday afternoon, the websites of Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ had begun to come back online
The websites of dozens of financial institutions and airlines across Australia and the United States were down briefly on Thursday — the second major IT-related blackout in just over a week.
Server-related glitches at content delivery network (CDN) provider Akamai hampered services at Australian banks, while many US airlines — including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines — also reported an hour-long outage.
It follows a separate outage at rival provider Fastly, which affected a significant number of popular news websites last week.
A spokesperson for Akamai said the outage is thought to have been caused by a bug in Akamai’s software, rather than a cyberattack or vulnerability, adding that the company was “continuing to validate services”.
“Our website and other internet-based tools are back up and running today after a brief outage late Wednesday evening,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement.
“We are continuing to look into the root cause of last night’s outage, but it’s believed to be related to the broad Akamai outage.”
In Australia, websites of the central bank, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ had begun to come back online by late Thursday afternoon.