Syria experiences prolonged BGP routing disruption

Syria experienced a significant and prolonged disruption to its internet routing infrastructure beginning on July 26. The event, which lasted for approximately 9.7 days, was characterized by a severe degradation in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) control plane.

Technical Details

The disruption recorded a severity score of 25,170. The primary affected metric was the BGP median signal, which measures the control plane visibility of the country’s internet prefixes. The signal showed a measurable drop in advertised routes during the period from July 26 at 08:10 UTC until August 5 at 00:30 UTC.

Concurrently, other network health indicators showed declines. The Merit Network Telescope (merit-nt) backscatter measurement, a proxy for overall internet activity, fell by 43% from its peak. The normalized Google Traffic (gtr-norm) signal, which compares current traffic to a historical baseline, dropped by 69%.

The cause has not been publicly attributed.

The disruption was reported as resolved at the end of the observation window.