A major internet outage caused by an Amazon Web Services disruption has left numerous popular apps and websites, including Snapchat, Duolingo, and several banks, inaccessible to millions of users worldwide since early Monday morning. The widespread failure highlights the critical dependency on cloud infrastructure for modern digital services.
The outage began around 8am BST on October 20, 2025, with tracking website DownDetector reporting a massive spike in complaints across various platforms. Services such as Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, and Duolingo were among the first to show issues, quickly followed by problems with Amazon’s own offerings like Ring doorbells, Alexa smart assistants, and Prime Video. Users took to social media to express frustration, with many unable to access essential apps for communication, gaming, and daily tasks.
Amazon Web Services acknowledged the problem on its status page, stating that it was experiencing increased error rates and delays affecting multiple services, particularly in the US-EAST-1 region based in Northern Virginia. Engineers were immediately engaged to investigate, and within hours, identified a potential root cause related to DNS resolution issues with the DynamoDB APIs. This technical glitch caused a cascading failure that disrupted dependent services globally.
The impact extended far beyond entertainment and social media apps. Critical services including UK banks like Lloyds and Halifax, as well as government portals such as HMRC for tax management, were also affected. This broad disruption underscored how deeply integrated AWS is in the operations of various sectors, from finance to public services, raising concerns about single points of failure in cloud infrastructure.
Experts weighing in on the outage suggested that it was likely due to an internal error, such as a misconfiguration or software update issue, rather than a cyberattack. Jake Moore, a security advisor at ESET, noted that while a hack couldn’t be ruled out entirely, there was no current evidence of malicious activity. Professor James Davenport from the University of Bath expressed worry that UK banking apps were impacted, indicating possible unexpected dependencies on US-based servers.
Amazon Web Services, as the dominant cloud provider with approximately 30% of the global market, generates over $100 billion annually and accounts for the majority of Amazon’s profits. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the internet’s fragility when reliant on centralized systems. The outage affected users across continents, demonstrating how a regional issue can have worldwide consequences due to the interconnected nature of cloud services.
In response to the disruption, cybersecurity experts recommended that companies using cloud services should implement multi-region strategies and robust failover systems to enhance resilience. Dr. Manny Niri from Oxford Brookes University emphasized the need for better redundancy and clear communication from providers to maintain customer trust. As Amazon works to resolve the issue, the event has sparked broader discussions on improving internet infrastructure to prevent similar outages in the future.
As of the latest updates, services are gradually being restored, but the full resolution may take time. This outage not only caused immediate inconvenience but also prompted a reevaluation of cloud dependency strategies among businesses and governments, highlighting the ongoing challenges in maintaining a stable and secure digital ecosystem.