Major Web Disruption Hits Dozens Websites and Mobile Apps

An extensive online disruption has affected many sites and apps globally, and users noting issues accessing the internet after problems at the cloud computing platform.

The affected apps include Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and the language learning app Duolingo, in addition to a host of Amazon-operated platforms such as its primary shopping platform and the Ring doorbell company.

In the UK, the financial institution Lloyds was disrupted along with its subsidiaries the bank Halifax and Bank of Scotland, with further notifications of problems accessing the HM Revenue and Customs site on the start of the week. Also in the UK, several Ring customers took to networks to report their home gadgets were not working.

Solely in the United Kingdom, accounts of problems on specific applications reached the many thousands for each app.

Officials confirmed that the issue began in the east coast of the United States at AWS, a unit that provides vital web infrastructure for many businesses, who utilize capacity on Amazon servers. AWS is the biggest global online services service.

Just after late night (PDT) in the US (morning UK time), the company announced “higher error rates and slowdowns” for the cloud services in a zone on the east coast of the United States. The cascading impact appeared to hit services worldwide, and the Downdetector site reporting problems with the identical platforms in various regions.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a service that tracks online failures, additionally noted a surge in outages on the start of the week, including several cases situated in the Virginia area, the site of the eastern US data center where officials confirmed the problems started.