How Level 3's Tiny Error Shut Off the Internet for Parts of the US. [telecom]

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How Level 3's Tiny Error Shut Off the Internet for Parts of the US

A YEAR AGO, a DDoS attack caused internet outages around the US by targeting the internet-infrastructure company Dyn, which provides Domain Name System services to look up web servers. Monday saw a nationwide series of outages as well, but with a more pedestrian cause: a misconfiguration at Level 3, an internet backbone company - and enterprise ISP - that underpins other big networks. Network analysts say that the misconfiguration was a routing issue that created a ripple effect, causing problems for companies like Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon, Cox, and RCN across the country.