[Suwan News = Reporter Kim Dong-ju] A global service outage occurred at Cloudflare on November 18, 2025. As a result of this outage, users worldwide were unable to access ChatGPT and other AI systems, as well as websites such as League of Legends and Valorant—any website that uses Cloudflare’s DNS and security products.
Our publication has also been using Cloudflare's DNS service for about three years, and around midnight yesterday, the site became completely inaccessible.
Through this recent service outage, I realized that when a system relies on external software or libraries, if even one of those services is found to have a vulnerability that causes a problem, the entire system becomes vulnerable in a chain reaction.
A service like Cloudflare, where you can easily register your own domain within the system and, after verifying the nameservers, comprehensively configure everything from DNS records to visitor analytics and logs, AI, SSL/TLS, and various security settings, is
This is an unprecedentedly rare occurrence, and it is not easy to find an “alternative service” that can or is capable of replacing Cloudflare. In particular, given that approximately 20% of websites worldwide use Cloudflare, the damage and repercussions of this incident may be even greater than they had anticipated. Above all, this incident may serve as a warning sign regarding mistrust in Cloudflare and the dangers of monopolies.
According to Cloudflare, this incident appears to have been caused by an issue with its global network, and no DDoS or other hacking attacks have been confirmed. As of the 19th, recovery is complete, and no further issues have been identified across the network; however, the company stated that its team is conducting real-time monitoring to prevent a recurrence of the problem.
The Internet is playing an increasingly significant role in our lives. This is because the paradigm has shifted—various cutting-edge IT systems, ranging from smartphones and tablets to smart TVs, autonomous vehicles, and robots, are no longer services reserved for a select few but are now available to all of us. These services are no longer merely a means to free us from excessive labor and provide us with a better quality of life and stability. However, this very point may ironically serve to demonstrate just how dependent we have become on these specific systems.
As AI continues to evolve, it requires more server resources (such as graphics cards), which in turn necessitates the expansion of infrastructure essential to our daily lives—such as electricity and water—and leads to an increase in the social costs we must bear.
As technology continues to advance at an ever-increasing pace, it is time to assess whether humanity’s existing infrastructure is keeping pace with that growth.
Kim Dong-ju, Reporter
