Significant Web Disruption Impacts Numerous Sites and Apps

A widespread online failure has impacted dozens online platforms and mobile apps worldwide, with users noting problems connecting to the web after problems at the online infrastructure service.

The affected apps include Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and the language learning app Duolingo, in addition to multiple Amazon-operated platforms such as its main retail site and the Ring security device manufacturer.

In the UK, Lloyds bank was disrupted along with its subsidiaries the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, while there were also reports of problems using the the tax authority site on the start of the week. Additionally in Britain, many Ring users used social media to report their doorbells were failing.

In the UK alone, reports of disruptions on particular applications ran into the thousands for each app.

Amazon reported that the problem began in the east coast of the America at AWS, a division that supplies crucial online backbone for many firms, who utilize capacity on AWS infrastructure. AWS is the biggest global cloud computing platform.

Soon after midnight (PDT) in the United States (8 in the morning BST), officials reported “elevated problem frequencies and latencies” for AWS services in a zone on the east coast of the US. The cascading impact appeared to disrupt services globally, and the Downdetector site reporting problems with the same sites in various regions.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a service that monitors online failures, additionally noted a rise in issues on the start of the week, and numerous instances located in the Virginia area, the location of the AWS US-East-1 zone where officials confirmed the outage began.