Mar 14, 2019 - Technology

No, Facebook and Instagram's blackout wasn't a cyberattack

Photo: Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Not everything is a cyberattack. Facebook fended off rumors that an outage of its products Wednesday night, including Facebook and Instagram, was the result of a DDoS attack.

Meanwhile: Telegram reports gaining 3 million users during the brief outages of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

NetScout issued a press release claiming the outage was a BGP leak, but after experts (including, apparently, the NetScout employee quoted in the press release) said that wasn't the case, NetScout walked back the certainty of its claims.

What they're saying:

  • "Absent more forensic evidence, we can't speculate about the cause of that specific outage," NetScout said via email.
  • "Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had trouble accessing our apps and services. We've now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering," Facebook said via Twitter on Thursday.

Go deeper: Facebook’s pivot to encrypted messaging is bigger than privacy

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Ashley Gold, Kyle Daly
41 mins ago - Technology

Justice Department sues Google over alleged search monopoly

Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios

The Justice Department and 11 states Tuesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of using anticompetitive tactics to illegally monopolize the online search and search advertising markets.

Why it matters: The long-awaited suit is Washington's first major blow against the tech giants that many on both the right and left argue have grown too large and powerful. Still, this is just step one in what could be a lengthy and messy court battle.

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Axios
Updated 57 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

  1. Politics: Americans feel Trump's sickness makes him harder to trust — Florida breaks record for in-person early voting.
  2. Health: The next wave is gaining steam.
  3. Education: Schools haven't become hotspots.
  4. World: Ireland moving back into lockdown — Argentina becomes 5th country to report 5 million infections.
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Orion Rummler
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

In photos: Florida breaks record for in-person early voting

Voters wait in line at John F. Kennedy Public Library in Hialeah, Florida on Oct. 19. Photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images

More Floridians cast early ballots for the 2020 election on Monday than in the first day of in-person early voting in 2016, shattering the previous record by over 50,000 votes, Politico reports.

The big picture: Voters have already cast over 31 million ballots in early voting states as of Tuesday, per the U.S. Elections Project database by Michael McDonald, an elections expert at the University of Florida.

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