Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
A major global outage originating from Amazon Web Services (AWS) disrupted a wide swath of the internet early Monday, causing downtime and functionality issues across dozens of major websites, apps, and online services.
From social media platforms and banking apps to airline websites and government portals, the effects of the disruption were felt around the world. While service has gradually been restored to many affected platforms, some users continue to report lingering issues.
What Happened?
The outage was traced back to AWS, Amazon’s powerful cloud computing division, which provides backend infrastructure for much of the global internet. At approximately 4:26 a.m. ET, AWS reported elevated “error rates and latencies” across services in its US-EAST-1 region, centered in Northern Virginia, a major data hub for global internet traffic.
Specifically, Amazon cited problems with DynamoDB, a core AWS database service, and DNS resolution, which translates web addresses into IP addresses. The DNS failure meant that devices couldn’t locate or connect to various services using AWS infrastructure.
Who Was Affected?
The disruption was widespread and diverse, affecting both consumer-facing services and back-end operations:
- Social media and communication apps: Snapchat, Facebook, Reddit, WhatsApp, and Signal all saw spikes in reported issues, with Snapchat alone receiving over 7,000 reports at the peak of the outage, according to DownDetector.
- Gaming platforms: Popular titles like Fortnite, Roblox, and Clash of Clans were impacted, with many users unable to log in or connect to game servers.
- Airlines and travel: U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines experienced disruption on their websites and mobile apps. While flight operations were not directly impacted, the incident raised concerns about digital vulnerability in critical sectors.
- Financial services: In the United Kingdom, customers of Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, and Halifax reported issues logging into their online banking accounts. Users faced error messages when trying to access websites or mobile apps.
- Government platforms: The U.K. government’s official portal, Gov.uk, including services related to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), was also hit by the disruption. A government spokesperson confirmed awareness of the AWS issue and said authorities were in direct contact with Amazon to restore services.
- Other popular platforms impacted include Venmo, Zoom, Microsoft 365, Duolingo, Hinge, Slack, Canva, Tidal, McDonald’s, Coinbase, Strava, and even the viral game Wordle.
The outage was especially concentrated along the U.S. East Coast, with significant reports also coming in from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and major European cities.
Amazon’s Response
AWS acknowledged the issue in a series of service updates, indicating that engineers had identified the root cause an issue related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint and were working toward a full resolution.
As of the latest update, Amazon confirmed that the “underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated” and that “most AWS service operations are succeeding normally”. However, the company also noted that some requests may still be throttled and that a backlog of operations, including functions like CloudTrail and AWS Lambda, was still being processed.
“We continue to work towards full resolution and will provide updates as we have more information to share,” Amazon said in an official statement.
No Clear Cause Identified
Amazon has yet to confirm the precise cause of the initial outage, nor has there been any indication that the incident was related to cyberattacks or external interference. The issue appears to have been confined to internal AWS systems, with DNS failures often resulting from configuration errors, software bugs, or server overloads.
Broader Implications
The incident highlights the enormous global dependency on a handful of cloud infrastructure providers, particularly AWS, which powers a vast ecosystem of websites, apps, and digital services. When AWS falters, the ripple effects are immediate and widespread, impacting everything from ride-sharing and online payments to airline check-ins and government services.
For consumers and businesses alike, Monday’s outage serves as a reminder of the digital world’s fragility and the urgent need for diversified infrastructure and contingency planning in a cloud-dominated era.
