Cloudflare urges vigilance after global internet disruptions in Q3 2025
Internet connectivity across the globe experienced significant disruption in the third quarter of 2025, driven by a range of causes including government-mandated shutdowns, fibre optic cable damage, natural disasters, cyberattacks and technical issues, according to a new report by Cloudflare.
Government shutdowns
The report identifies continued government-directed Internet shutdowns in several countries. In Sudan, regular traffic drops were recorded each day from 7 to 10 July coinciding with the final days of postponed secondary school certificate examinations. Shutdowns affected major providers such as Sudatel, SDN Mobitel, and MTN Sudan. Cloudflare notes that such exam-related Internet outages have become a recurring phenomenon in Sudan over previous years.
In Syria, authorities implemented multiple Internet disruptions between 12 July and 3 August during the secondary education certificate exam period. The Syrian Ministry of Education stated on Telegram:
"As part of its efforts to ensure the integrity of the examination process, and in coordination with relevant authorities, the Ministry of Education was able to uncover organized exam cheating networks in three examination centers in Lattakia Governorate. These networks used advanced electronic technologies and devices in their attempt to manipulate the exam process.
The network was seized in cooperation with the Lattakia Education Directorate, following close monitoring and detection of suspicious attempts. It was found that members of the network used small earphones, wireless communication devices, and mobile phones equipped with advanced transmission and reception technologies, which contradict educational values and violate the integrity of the examination process and the principle of justice."
Venezuela experienced an unusual government-imposed shutdown when SuperCable, an Internet service provider, ceased operations after losing its operating licence. According to a notification from the National Commission of Telecommunications, the provider's authority was revoked effective 14 March, with a 60-day transition period. SuperCable subscribers were notified by email, and connectivity ceased within half an hour of being informed.
In Iraq, Internet shutdowns related to exams persisted through July and into September. The Kurdistan Regional Government ordered temporary suspensions to prevent cheating on exams, impacting providers such as KNET, Newroz Telecom, and KorekTel. Additional country-wide shutdowns coincided with high school exams, affecting networks like Earthlink and Asiacell.
Mid-September saw widespread shutdowns in Afghanistan, where the Taliban ordered the suspension of fibre optic Internet connectivity in multiple provinces to "prevent immorality", the first such measure since 2021. The shutdown prevented students from attending online classes and impacted essential services including commerce and government agencies. Connectivity was restored on 1 October.
Cable cuts and infrastructure failures
Damage to fibre optic cables, both submarine and terrestrial, accounted for several incidents. In the Dominican Republic, damage to two cables on 7 July resulted in a traffic reduction of more than two-thirds for Claro subscribers, with service resuming after swift repairs.
Angola experienced a 95% traffic drop for Unitel Angola users on 19 July following cable damage linked to roadworks. The incident's timing overlapped with public protests, leading to disputes over whether the incident was government-imposed or infrastructure-related. In Haiti, Digicel Haiti reported dual cuts to its fibre infrastructure on 26 August, dropping traffic by 80% for several hours.
An incident in Texas, United States saw a stray bullet damage a cable near Dallas on 26 September, disrupting Spectrum customers for about two hours and resulting in a traffic loss of under 25%. In South Africa, major cable breaks on 27 September led to a six-hour service disruption for Telkom customers, reducing Internet traffic by as much as 50%.
The reporting period also saw cable cuts in the Red Sea, with impacts felt in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. These cuts affected bandwidth and latency for users, as noted by providers such as Pakistan Telecom and Etisalat.
Natural disasters and power outages
Nations faced disruptions from natural disasters, including a magnitude 8.8 earthquake on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on 29 July, which caused Internet traffic drop-offs of 75% or more across local networks before gradual recovery. In Egypt, a fire at the Ramses Central Exchange in Cairo disrupted several providers with traffic only recovering as alternative facilities were activated.
Widespread power outages triggered further breakdowns. Notably, Cuba experienced a 60% drop in Internet traffic on 10 September after the national power grid collapsed. St Vincent and the Grenadines, Curaçao, and Gibraltar all recorded outages linked to failures of local power infrastructure, pulling their Internet traffic down by up to 80% in affected regions.
Cyberattacks and technical faults
A cyberattack on 11 August targeted YemenNet's ADSL infrastructure in Yemen, briefly disrupting Internet services and significantly decreasing network traffic, with corresponding impacts on the network's announced IP address space. Technical issues also struck global satellite provider Starlink, which acknowledged a 24 July network outage attributed to software failures in core network services. The Vice President of Network Engineering at SpaceX stated, "The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network." Affected regions saw significant drops in Internet activity during the incident.
China experienced an unusual 25% loss in traffic on 19 August. Analysis indicated HTTPS traffic was disproportionately affected, with a spike in HTTP and IPv4 traffic shares. The event was later explained by external analysis as resulting from anomalous behaviour in China's Great Firewall, specifically the injection of forged packets disrupting all connections on TCP port 443.
Other disruptions
The report also details other disruptions, such as the 80% traffic drop in Iran on 5 July and an outage impacting Claro Colombia customers on 6 August, both lacking public explanations or consensus on their origins. Similarly, South African provider RSAWEB reported a near-complete loss of service on 10 September without clarifying the underlying cause.
