Substantial Online Failure Hits Dozens Websites and Applications

A large-scale web outage has affected many sites and applications globally, with users experiencing problems connecting to the web after problems at the web hosting system.

The disrupted platforms comprise the social media app Snapchat, Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and the language learning app Duolingo, in addition to a host of Amazon-managed services like its main retail website and the Ring security home security firm.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was disrupted along with its branches Halifax and the Scottish bank, while there were additional accounts of difficulties reaching the HMRC website on that morning. Also in the UK, multiple Ring users took to online platforms to report their security devices were not working.

Just within Britain, reports of problems on individual applications ran into the tens of thousands for each platform.

Amazon reported that the problem began in the east coast of the America at Amazon Web Services, a section that provides vital online backbone for many firms, who utilize resources on AWS infrastructure. Amazon Web Services is the world’s largest web hosting platform.

Just after midnight (PDT) in the America (morning UK time), the company announced “elevated failure rates and delays” for Amazon's platforms in a area on the Atlantic seaboard of the America. The ripple effect seemed to disrupt platforms worldwide, and the outage tracking website indicating outages with the identical platforms in multiple continents.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a service that monitors online failures, further indicated a increase in outages on that morning, with many of them found in Virginia, the location of Amazon’s US-East-1 region where officials confirmed the issues originated.