Substantial Internet Disruption Affects Numerous Sites and Mobile Apps

A widespread web failure has impacted numerous websites and apps around the world, with users noting problems connecting to the web following issues at Amazon’s cloud computing platform.

The disrupted apps include the social media app Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, and Duolingo, along with a host of Amazon-managed services like its key e-commerce platform and the Ring security home security firm.

Throughout Britain, the financial institution Lloyds was affected along with its affiliates the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, while there were further notifications of difficulties reaching the the tax authority site on that morning. Also in the UK, many Ring users took to social media to report their home gadgets were malfunctioning.

Just within Britain, notifications of issues on specific applications totaled the many thousands for each app.

Officials confirmed that the problem began in the eastern region of the United States at the cloud division, a division that provides essential web backbone for a host of businesses, who lease capacity on the company's servers. The cloud platform is the biggest global cloud computing system.

Shortly after the start of the day (PDT) in the United States (morning UK time), officials reported “elevated problem frequencies and delays” for AWS services in a zone on the Atlantic seaboard of the America. The cascading impact was seen to hit services around the world, and the problem monitoring service indicating problems with the same sites in different parts of the world.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a tool that tracks online failures, also reported a increase in issues on the start of the week, with many of them located in Virginia, the location of the eastern US data center where the company stated the issues originated.