Significant Internet Outage Impacts Dozens Sites and Mobile Apps

A widespread web outage has disrupted numerous sites and mobile apps worldwide, as users experiencing problems accessing the internet after problems at Amazon’s cloud computing service.

The affected apps encompass Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, Signal, and Duolingo, as well as a host of Amazon-operated operations like its key e-commerce website and the Ring device manufacturer.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was disrupted along with its affiliates the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, with further notifications of issues accessing the the tax authority online portal on that morning. Also in the UK, multiple Ring customers turned to social media to report their home gadgets were failing.

In the UK alone, reports of problems on particular applications ran into the tens of thousands for each platform.

Amazon reported that the issue started in the east coast of the United States at the cloud division, a division that offers vital web backbone for numerous companies, who rent out space on AWS infrastructure. Amazon Web Services is the world’s largest web hosting platform.

Just after late night (PDT) in the US (8 in the morning BST), officials reported “elevated failure rates and latencies” for AWS services in a area on the east coast of the United States. The widespread consequence appeared to hit services globally, with the Downdetector site showing outages with the identical platforms in multiple continents.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on internet outages, additionally noted a rise in issues on that morning, including several cases located in Virginia, the location of the eastern US data center where the company stated the problems originated.