Major Online Failure Affects Numerous Sites and Mobile Apps

A widespread web failure has affected dozens websites and apps around the world, and users noting issues getting online due to difficulties at Amazon’s web hosting system.

The affected platforms include the social media app Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, Signal, and Duolingo, along with a host of Amazon-owned operations like its main retail platform and the Ring security device manufacturer.

In the UK, Lloyds bank was affected along with its branches the bank Halifax and the Scottish bank, with also reports of problems reaching the HMRC site on the start of the week. Also in the UK, several Ring users took to social media to report their doorbells were not working.

In the UK alone, accounts of problems on particular applications reached the thousands for each platform.

Amazon reported that the issue started in the east coast of the United States at Amazon Web Services, a division that offers vital internet framework for a host of firms, who lease resources on AWS infrastructure. AWS is the most extensive web hosting platform.

Shortly after the start of the day (PDT) in the United States (8 in the morning BST), Amazon confirmed “elevated problem frequencies and slowdowns” for the cloud services in a region on the Atlantic seaboard of the America. The ripple effect was seen to affect platforms worldwide, with the Downdetector site showing problems with the corresponding services in multiple continents.

The monitoring service Thousand Eyes, a service that reports on online failures, also reported a rise in outages on the start of the week, with many of them situated in the Virginia area, the region of the eastern US data center where the company stated the problems started.