Is Cyber Polygon responsible for the massive internet outage that brought down over 33,000 websites worldwide?

Just last week, we wrote about Cyber Polygon after reports that western nations were prepping for a “cyber pandemic” that would shut down power and the internet. Led by The World Economic Forum (WEF) and 200 teams from 48 countries, the goal is to conduct live training exercises to “a targeted supply chain attack on a corporate ecosystem in real-time.” Then, on July 9, 2021, WEF and its partners hosted a simulation of cyber attacks on supply chains and the power grid.

Today, about two weeks after the simulation, a massive internet outage disrupted at least 33,000 websites worldwide. There were reports that the outage was due to Akamai experiencing DNS failures.

However, there were also reports that the outage might be due to the Cyber Polygon exercise. Considering that the 2021 Cyber Polygon simulation about a “cyber pandemic” was completed just two weeks ago, many people are wondering if today’s outage is in any way related.

At 12:47 PM New York Time, Akamai tweeted, “We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations. We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated.”

By 13:43 EST, most of the websites worldwide are slowly coming back online after Akamai tweeted that the ongoing outage “was not a result of a cyberattack on the Akamai platform.”

We are continuing to monitor the situation and can confirm this was not a result of a cyberattack on the Akamai platform.

— Akamai Technologies (@Akamai) July 22, 2021

At 2:07 PM New York Time, Akamai said the outage was caused by a software configuration update that triggered a bug in the DNS system, the system that directs browsers to websites, which later caused a disruption impacting the availability of some customer websites”

“At 15:46 UTC today, a software configuration update triggered a bug in the DNS system, the system that directs browsers to websites. This caused a disruption impacting availability of some customer websites. (1/3)”

Akamai Summarizes Service Disruption (RESOLVED)

At 15:46 UTC today, a software configuration update triggered a bug in the DNS system, the system that directs browsers to websites. This caused a disruption impacting availability of some customer websites. (1/3)

— Akamai Technologies (@Akamai) July 22, 2021

We apologize for the inconvenience that resulted. We are reviewing our software update process to prevent future disruptions. (3/3)

— Akamai Technologies (@Akamai) July 22, 2021

Meanwhile, dozens of major corporate websites were also affected and went offline. Some of the companies affected by the outages include PlayStation Network, Fidelity, FedEx, Steam, UPS, Airbnb, Home Depot, and Amazon, according to Downdector.

All of the outages for the major corporate websites appear to have originated around the same time between 11:15 to 11:30 EST (New York Time). The outage also raises the suspicion that the 2020 Cyber Polygon simulation about a “cyber pandemic” was completed just two weeks ago.