Significant Web Failure Hits Dozens Sites and Applications

An extensive web disruption has disrupted many online platforms and mobile apps around the world, with users experiencing problems getting online after problems at Amazon’s cloud computing service.

The impacted services comprise Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and Duolingo, in addition to multiple Amazon-owned platforms including its main retail platform and the Ring home security firm.

Across the United Kingdom, Lloyds bank was disrupted as well as its subsidiaries the bank Halifax and Bank of Scotland, while there were also reports of problems accessing the HMRC site on Monday morning. Furthermore across the UK, multiple Ring device owners took to online platforms to state their security devices were malfunctioning.

In the UK alone, reports of disruptions on individual applications reached the many thousands for each app.

Amazon reported that the issue originated in the east coast of the US at Amazon Web Services, a section that supplies essential online framework for numerous businesses, who rent out space on AWS infrastructure. The cloud platform is the world’s largest web hosting platform.

Soon after late night (PDT) in the America (8am BST), the company announced “increased problem frequencies and latencies” for AWS services in a zone on the Atlantic seaboard of the US. The ripple effect seemed to affect platforms around the world, with the Downdetector site showing issues with the corresponding services in various regions.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a platform that reports on online failures, additionally noted a surge in problems on that morning, including several cases situated in Virginia, the location of the AWS US-East-1 zone where officials confirmed the outage began.