Substantial Internet Outage Affects Dozens Websites and Mobile Apps

A widespread web failure has affected dozens sites and mobile apps worldwide, with users experiencing problems getting online after problems at the online infrastructure service.

The disrupted services include the social media app Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and Duolingo, as well as multiple Amazon-operated platforms including its primary shopping platform and the Ring security home security firm.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was disrupted along with its subsidiaries the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, and also reports of problems using the the tax authority online portal on the start of the week. Furthermore across the UK, several Ring customers used online platforms to complain their home gadgets were failing.

In the UK alone, accounts of problems on individual platforms reached the thousands for each app.

Officials confirmed that the outage originated in the Atlantic coast of the America at AWS, a unit that provides essential internet backbone for a host of firms, who rent out resources on the company's servers. Amazon Web Services is the most extensive web hosting service.

Shortly after late night (PDT) in the United States (8am BST), Amazon confirmed “higher problem frequencies and slowdowns” for the cloud services in a area on the east coast of the US. The ripple effect was seen to affect platforms around the world, and the problem monitoring service reporting outages with the same sites in various regions.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on web disruptions, further indicated a surge in outages on Monday morning, including several cases located in the state of Virginia, the location of the AWS US-East-1 zone where officials confirmed the problems began.