A small error on the side of an internet provider from Uherský Brod caused what might seem like an unbelievable thing: Within several minutes, it resulted in an internet collapse in some places in western Europe, the US and China last Monday.
World experts reacted to the collapse, saying it was a unique event in the history of internet. In the Czech Republic the error did not show up, but it cut off one fifth of internet users all over the world for about an hour.
The whole collapse was probably the result of a careless mistake. The error was caused by a typo in a single item during server programming in Uherský Brod’s small company Supro. The internet provider’s employee entered a three-digit cipher instead of a single-digit one in a box by accident when setting one of the servers.
The fact that the problem reached such a large scale has to do with how the internet works – in exceptional cases, one server’s error can show up on other continents within a few minutes.
Experts do not rule out that a similar problem could happen again. Consequently, they do not consider it a scandal – on the contrary, they are praising the speed with which the collapse was solved.
Two extra digits
“The problem affected about 10 to 20% of internet networks,” said Zbyněk Pospíchal from the internet company Dial Telecom. “Not many similar incidences have occurred, definitely not on this scale,” said Patrick Zandl, the editor-in-chief of the internet magazine Lupa.cz, which was the first to report on the event.
On Monday evening the company Supro wanted to change the way internet data was going through its network. The employees started changing the settings of one of the servers. However, they entered the number 255 into one of the boxes instead of a single-digit item. Immediately after that servers all over the world began to experience problems: The optimum way for streaming websites and emails was suddenly extremely long.
All servers around the world compile their own internet maps from similar information and then they send all the data based on this map. “Many older facilities were not able to operate normally,” Zbyněk Pospíchal said about the consequences of the small typo, adding: “The error was spreading further, and it soon appeared in many regions.”
According to Renesys, a provider of analysis solutions, which was monitoring the whole incident, the error had biggest impact on Spain, Belgium, New Zealand and Egypt. Many people in western Europe, the US and China were also unable to browse websites, send emails or download films and music from the internet.
It could happen again
The company from Uherský Brod fixed the problem very quickly, so the internet could get back to its original state within an hour,” said Patrick Zandl. However, according to experts, it is not only the typo in Uherský Brod that is to be blamed for the collapse.
“The obsoleteness of some servers and their out-of-date software also contributed to the collapse of a large part of the internet network,” Zbyněk Pospíchal said.
According to Zandl, the collapse could theoretically happen again. “It could happen again, but a similar mistake can be caused only by an internet company. Moreover, the control mechanisms worked very well in this case,” Zandl said.
There is only a small probability that someone would intentionally put part of the internet out of service. “Possible hackers or terrorists could use such an error only with difficulties. They would have to know very detailed information about the servers of internet companies,” Zandl said, adding: “Such information is not publicly accessible. And it would take a very long time to acquire it.”
HN did not succeed in contacting the owner of Supro, which was at the beginning of the internet collapse, before its Tuesday deadline.
