Substantial Internet Outage Affects Dozens Websites and Apps

A large-scale internet outage has affected numerous sites and applications around the world, and users experiencing issues connecting to the web following issues at Amazon’s cloud computing system.

The affected platforms comprise the social media app Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, and the language learning app Duolingo, along with several Amazon-managed operations like its primary shopping website and the Ring home security firm.

In the UK, the financial institution Lloyds was impacted in addition to its affiliates the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, with also reports of problems accessing the HM Revenue and Customs website on the start of the week. Additionally in Britain, multiple Ring users turned to online platforms to complain their doorbells were failing.

In the UK alone, accounts of disruptions on particular applications totaled the many thousands for each platform.

The company stated that the problem began in the Atlantic coast of the US at Amazon Web Services, a section that supplies crucial web infrastructure for numerous businesses, who utilize capacity on AWS infrastructure. Amazon Web Services is the world’s largest cloud computing platform.

Just after the start of the day (PDT) in the US (8 in the morning BST), the company announced “increased error rates and delays” for Amazon's platforms in a area on the Atlantic seaboard of the US. The ripple effect appeared to disrupt services worldwide, with the Downdetector site reporting issues with the corresponding services in different parts of the world.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a service that monitors internet outages, also reported a rise in issues on the start of the week, and numerous instances situated in Virginia, the region of the AWS US-East-1 zone where the company stated the outage originated.