Substantial Internet Failure Impacts Dozens Sites and Mobile Apps

An extensive internet disruption has affected numerous sites and applications worldwide, and users reporting issues getting online due to difficulties at the online infrastructure service.

The impacted platforms comprise the social media app Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and Duolingo, in addition to a host of Amazon-owned services like its main retail website and the Ring device manufacturer.

Across the United Kingdom, Lloyds bank was disrupted as well as its subsidiaries Halifax and Bank of Scotland, with also reports of problems using the HMRC online portal on the start of the week. Additionally in Britain, many Ring users took to social media to report their home gadgets were malfunctioning.

Solely in the United Kingdom, notifications of problems on particular platforms ran into the thousands for each platform.

Amazon reported that the outage started in the eastern region of the US at the cloud division, a section that supplies vital internet backbone for a host of firms, who lease space on AWS infrastructure. The cloud platform is the biggest global cloud computing service.

Soon after the start of the day (PDT) in the America (8am BST), officials reported “elevated problem frequencies and delays” for Amazon's platforms in a zone on the Atlantic seaboard of the America. The ripple effect was seen to affect services globally, with the outage tracking website showing outages with the identical platforms in various regions.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on internet outages, also reported a rise in issues on the start of the week, with many of them located in the Virginia area, the site of the eastern US data center where officials confirmed the outage originated.