Hackers Reportedly Take Down Facebook, Instagram Sites Across The World
(CBS SF) -- Users across the world experienced problems logging onto Facebook and Instagram via desktop and mobile apps for about 40 minutes Monday night.
UPDATE: Facebook Blames Internal Glitch, Not Hackers For Worldwide Outage
According to CBS LA, a hacker group known as the Lizard Squad is claiming responsibility for taking the sites offline shortly before 10:30 p.m.
The Lizard Squad group had previously claimed responsibility for cyber strikes that affected online service for Xbox and Playstation users over the holidays.
Facebook released a statement at 10:55 p.m., reading:
"We're aware that many people are currently having trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible."
Shortly before 11:10, Facebook and Instagram resumed service.
According to downdetector.com, the outage impacted people in Australia, Japan, parts of Europe and large swaths of the U.S. East and West Coast.
Major outages have impacted Facebook this summer in May, June and August. TechCrunch estimates Facebook loses about $22,453 for every minute its down around the globe, but could have been more since the outage happened during a prime browsing time for Facebook's markets in the West.