Significant Internet Outage Hits Many Websites and Apps

A widespread online disruption has disrupted many websites and mobile apps around the world, and users experiencing issues connecting to the web due to difficulties at the web hosting service.

The disrupted services include Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, and Duolingo, as well as several Amazon-owned platforms including its main retail platform and the Ring security device manufacturer.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was impacted along with its subsidiaries the bank Halifax and Bank of Scotland, with additional accounts of issues accessing the the tax authority online portal on that morning. Additionally in Britain, several Ring device owners turned to networks to complain their home gadgets were failing.

In the UK alone, reports of disruptions on individual apps totaled the tens of thousands for each app.

Amazon reported that the outage began in the east coast of the United States at Amazon Web Services, a section that provides crucial web backbone for numerous businesses, who lease space on the company's servers. AWS is the most extensive cloud computing platform.

Shortly after midnight (PDT) in the United States (8am BST), the company announced “increased error rates and delays” for the cloud services in a region on the east coast of the America. The cascading impact appeared to affect services globally, and the Downdetector site indicating issues with the same sites in various regions.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on online failures, further indicated a surge in problems on that morning, and numerous instances located in the Virginia area, the location of the AWS US-East-1 zone where officials confirmed the problems originated.