Substantial Internet Outage Impacts Dozens Sites and Mobile Apps

An extensive internet failure has impacted dozens websites and mobile apps globally, and users noting issues connecting to the web due to difficulties at Amazon’s web hosting system.

The affected apps encompass Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and Duolingo, as well as several Amazon-owned services like its key e-commerce site and the Ring doorbell device manufacturer.

Across the United Kingdom, Lloyds bank was affected as well as its branches the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, while there were also reports of issues using the HM Revenue and Customs online portal on Monday morning. Also in the UK, many Ring customers used social media to complain their home gadgets were not working.

Just within Britain, reports of problems on individual apps ran into the many thousands for every service.

Officials confirmed that the problem originated in the eastern region of the America at Amazon Web Services, a division that supplies vital web backbone for a host of businesses, who utilize space on the company's servers. AWS is the biggest global online services system.

Shortly after late night (PDT) in the US (8 in the morning BST), Amazon confirmed “elevated failure rates and slowdowns” for Amazon's platforms in a area on the eastern US of the America. The cascading impact appeared to affect apps around the world, and the problem monitoring service showing issues with the corresponding services in different parts of the world.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a tool that tracks internet outages, additionally noted a increase in problems on the start of the week, with many of them found in the state of Virginia, the region of Amazon’s US-East-1 region where AWS said the issues originated.