Internet outage

It can occur due to censorship, cyberattacks, disasters,[1] police or security services actions[2] or errors.

Countries with a less developed Internet infrastructure are more vulnerable due to small numbers of high-capacity links.

The temporary disconnection of civilian internet access by military forces is an important aspect of information warfare.

Researchers have described potential mitigation measures and exceptions – such as user-powered mesh networks, related peer-to-peer applications and new protocols – and the robustness of the current Internet infrastructure.

[8][9][10] These attacks flood a website or network with traffic from multiple sources, overwhelming the server and making it unavailable to users.

Malicious software can infect and damage computer systems and networks, leading to internet outages.

These computers can be used to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware, or perform other malicious actions that can cause internet outages.

Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters can damage internet infrastructure, causing outages.

[16] Some, such as the Digital Society Project (DSP), send out surveys to experts around the world, and then aggregate the results into a single score.

[12] Freedom House asks the question "Does the government intentionally disrupt the internet or cellphone networks in response to political or social events, whether temporary or long term, localized or nationwide?

[11][20][21] The Open Observatory of Network Interference uses software installed on computers of volunteers around the world to detect shutdowns.

[15] The OpenNet Initiative has volunteers install software on their computers to check websites from access points around the world, then confirms those results with manual observations.