Substantial Internet Outage Affects Numerous Sites and Apps

A large-scale internet outage has affected numerous online platforms and applications globally, as users noting issues getting online due to difficulties at Amazon’s web hosting system.

The impacted apps encompass Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and Duolingo, along with several Amazon-managed operations including its key e-commerce site and the Ring security home security firm.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was disrupted in addition to its branches Halifax and the Scottish bank, while there were additional accounts of issues reaching the HMRC website on Monday morning. Furthermore across the UK, many Ring users used online platforms to report their security devices were failing.

Solely in the United Kingdom, reports of issues on particular platforms totaled the many thousands for each platform.

The company stated that the problem originated in the Atlantic coast of the United States at Amazon Web Services, a section that provides vital online infrastructure for many companies, who lease capacity on AWS infrastructure. The cloud platform is the biggest global online services platform.

Shortly after late night (PDT) in the United States (8am BST), the company announced “increased problem frequencies and latencies” for AWS services in a zone on the east coast of the America. The widespread consequence seemed to disrupt services globally, with the Downdetector site reporting problems with the corresponding services in multiple continents.

The outage tracker Thousand Eyes, a tool that tracks online failures, additionally noted a surge in issues on the start of the week, including several cases situated in the state of Virginia, the site of the eastern US data center where officials confirmed the outage began.