Zoom Workplace Was Restored after an Hours-Long Outage That Brought Meetings to a Halt

The video-conferencing platform Zoom was down for thousands of people yesterday. 60,000 people had logged issues with the service by 3:09 ET, and 46% experienced issues with the websites, while 38% reported problems with the app. 

Users reported issues with the Error Code 5003 globally while using the website and mobile app. Some users later got a 502: Bad gateway error as well during the Zoom outage. 

The Zoom website was functional again, but the service wasn’t, and those trying to start or join a meeting were still met with a 5003 error. Zoom’s status page acknowledged the issues and later restored service after disruptions affected tens of thousands of customers. 

This incident affected Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone, Zoom Contact Center, and Zoom Website. 

Zoom has been an essential business tool since the pandemic forced us to work from home, and since then, it has remained a crucial part of workplace communication. 

The Zoom outage barely lasted 30 minutes, but many meetings had to be cancelled because of Zoom connection disruptions. The incident showed how much we rely on technology and that the business world can come to a standstill if one service provider suffers an outage. 

What Caused the Zoom Outage?

A hacker group has claimed responsibility for the Zoom outage, while the company has said it was facing server issues and was not investigating domain name resolution issues. 

Dark Storm Team, a pro-Palestinian hacking group, has taken credit for the Zoom outage in a post on Telegram. They have claimed it’s a DDoS attack, which is a criminal act that involves flooding a site with data to overwhelm its servers and knock it offline. 

Zoom has not confirmed that the Zoom outage was because of hackers, but has said it was due to “a communication error between Zoom’s domain registrar, Markmonitor, and GoDaddy Registry, which resulted in GoDaddy Registry mistakenly shutting down zoom.us domain.” 

The Dark Storm team is a hacking group that targets key businesses in Israel and NATO member countries. They recently also took credit for a massive DDoS attack on Elon Musk’s X social media platform in March. 

The brief but widespread Zoom outage highlighted how dependent global businesses are on digital communication tools. While Zoom has clarified that a domain registry error caused the disruption, the incident and the hacker group’s claim underscore the growing risks of cyberattacks and technical failures in an increasingly connected world.

About the Author: Sarah Zimmerman is a seasoned crypto and Web3 news writer passionate about uncovering the latest developments in the digital asset space. With years of hands-on experience covering blockchain innovations, cryptocurrency trends, and decentralized technologies, she strives to deliver insightful and balanced news that empowers her readers. Her work is dedicated to demystifying complex topics and keeping you informed about the ever-evolving world of technology.