Shares Plummet as F5 Discloses Major Cyber Breach, AWS Outage Hits Services

F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) experienced a significant drop in its share price, falling over 10% after revealing a months-long cyber breach attributed to Chinese-linked hackers. The company disclosed that attackers exploited vulnerabilities in its own software, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data, including portions of its source code. Following the breach, cybersecurity authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom have urged organizations using F5 products to update their systems by October 22, 2025.

According to a regulatory filing, the infiltration occurred in late 2023 and remained undetected until August 2025. Bloomberg News reported that the hackers took advantage of a flaw that had been left exposed online due to lapses in internal security protocols. F5 described the intrusion as “persistent” and has engaged cybersecurity firms including CrowdStrike and Google’s Mandiant to assist in the investigation. The company indicated that it has seen no active exploitation of its source code and that the number of affected customers is limited.

The breach has raised alarms across the cybersecurity community, as officials noted that the hackers deployed Brickstorm, a malware type associated with a known Chinese threat group. As a precaution, F5 is working closely with law enforcement to mitigate any potential fallout from the breach.

In addition to the F5 incident, Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) is grappling with a major outage affecting numerous applications and online games. Users began reporting issues around 2:30 AM EST, with significant disruptions noted in the US-EAST-1 region. The company acknowledged increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services and stated that engineers are working diligently to address the problem and identify its root cause.

The outage has impacted several high-profile platforms, including Snapchat (SNAP) and McDonald’s (MCD), as well as popular games such as Roblox (RBLX) and Fortnite. Users have taken to social media to express frustration, with complaints spiking as the incident unfolded.

As these developments occur, stock index futures are showing positive movement. Traders are preparing for a busy earnings week, with key reports anticipated from major companies including Tesla (TSLA), Coca-Cola (KO), and Netflix (NFLX). Futures for the S&P 500 (SPX) rose by 0.4%, while Nasdaq 100 futures (US100:IND) increased 0.3% and Dow futures (INDU) climbed 0.2%.

Additionally, Deutsche Bank’s chief U.S. economist, Henry Allen, stated that the postponed Consumer Price Index (CPI) release for September will be published on Friday. Expectations indicate a monthly increase of 0.42%, potentially raising the year-on-year rate to 3.1%, which would be the strongest monthly figure since January.

As the markets respond to these significant events, crude oil prices have decreased by 0.3% to $57 per barrel, while Bitcoin has surged by 2% to $110,000. The FTSE 100 and DAX indices also reflect positive movement, increasing 0.4% and 1.1%, respectively.

In the premarket, notable stock movements included Plug Power (PLUG), which saw a 9% increase after TD Cowen raised its price target from $3.00 to $4.50, maintaining a Buy rating.

The coming days will be crucial for both F5 and AWS as they address their respective challenges while investors remain watchful of the broader market dynamics influenced by upcoming earnings and inflation data.