Google services fell due to global technological collapse

Affected services include Gmail, Youtube, and Google Drive. Other services, such as the search and map functions, seem to work primarily.

According to the Down Detector site, more than 12,000 YouTube users were affected in various countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. Even in Sweden, the problems appear to be far-reaching.

Just before 2pm, the various Google services started up again.

The security expert: one-time event

This is the first time that Google has encountered operational problems of this magnitude. What makes the event unusual is that many of the tech giant’s services were affected at the same time, and that it affected users around the world. That’s what Patrik Fältström, Netnod’s director of technology and security, says.

– In this case, Google services were active again after 35 minutes, which shows a clear professionalism on the part of Google. Now it will be interesting to read what Google has to say about what happened.

Do you think Google will be able to be transparent about the causes of the problems?

– I think so. Being transparent is a keyword in a situation like this. Otherwise, Google runs the risk of losing the trust of users.

The cause of Monday’s technical collapse is still unknown. But according to Patrik Fältström, the problems may be related to Google’s authentication services.

One thing that may be the cause is internal issues with the backend system that keeps track of users’ password changes. It is extremely important that this type of system is designed in such a way that it will fall over if there is the slightest risk of something going wrong internally. I always say that I would rather have a service shut down than have confidential information leaked.

How concerned should you be as a Google user?

– I’m not worried in the least. Once is not time. The important thing now is to see how transparent Google is about what happened, says Patrik Fältström.

Problems also at Microsoft

According to the site The Verge, smart speakers and other connected devices must also be affected by Google’s technological collapse. The same is true for third-party applications and other services that rely on Google’s backend infrastructure.

Microsoft also had problems with its cloud-based subscription service Microsoft 365 on Monday.

Shortly after 4 pm, Microsoft Sweden writes in an email to Ny Teknik that the disturbance – “which has affected users in certain parts of Europe” – has now been fixed.