Amazon Web Services outage hits dozens of websites and apps

Core Points - A significant internet outage affected numerous websites and applications globally, primarily due to issues at Amazon's cloud computing service, AWS [1][4][5] - The outage impacted major platforms including Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, Duolingo, and various Amazon-owned services [1][3] - In the UK, Lloyds Bank and its subsidiaries, as well as the HM Revenue and Customs website, experienced disruptions [2][3] Summary by Sections Outage Details - The problems began around 8am BST, with Amazon reporting increased error rates and latencies in its AWS services [4][5] - By 10:30am UK time, Amazon indicated that recovery was underway, confirming that services relying on the US-EAST-1 region were recovering [4] Affected Services - Reports indicated tens of thousands of issues across various platforms in the UK, including Wordle, Coinbase, Slack, and PlayStation Network [3] - The outage had a global ripple effect, with Downdetector reporting problems across multiple continents [5] Technical Insights - Cisco's Thousand Eyes noted a surge in outage reports, particularly in Virginia, where AWS's US-East-1 region is located [6] - Experts suggested that the outage was likely an IT issue rather than a cyber-attack, specifically related to AWS's DynamoDB database system [6][7] Industry Implications - The incident highlighted concerns about the concentration of digital infrastructure within a few companies, emphasizing the need for diversification in cloud computing [7][8] - The UK government is in contact with Amazon regarding the outage, indicating the potential implications for critical services [9]