Amanda CastroShane CroucherJasmine Laws

By Amanda Castro, Shane Croucher, and Jasmine Laws

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) said that all of its services have now "returned to normal operations" after hours of outages and performance issues hobbled swathes of the internet on Monday.

The broad outage hit millions of people worldwide, causing problems for consumers and businesses alike as people found themselves unable to use social media sites, gaming platforms, payment services, financial trading apps, commercial software, and more—disrupting global industries worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

"Some services such as AWS Config, Redshift, and Connect continue to have a backlog of messages that they will finish processing over the next few hours," AWS said in a status update at 3:53 p.m. PDT on Monday. "We will share a detailed AWS post-event summary."

What To Know

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Oct 21, 2025 at 02:37 AM EDT

Did AWS get hacked or was it a cyber attack?

No, it doesn't look like it is either, is the short answer. There is no evidence so far of either a hack or a cyber attack.

The root of the AWS outage seems to be a technical issue around "DNS resolution"—the process where a computer turns a website domain name into an IP address.

This triggered a cascade of problems throughout AWS Services, on which much of the internet relies, be it websites, apps, or other digital products.

"There’s no sign that this AWS outage was caused by a cyber attack—it looks like a technical fault affecting one of Amazon’s main data centres," said Rob Jardin, chief digital officer at cybersecurity firm NymVPN, said in a statement.

"These issues can happen when systems become overloaded or a key part of the network goes down, and because so many websites and apps rely on AWS, the impact spreads quickly."

AWS hasn't said exactly what it thinks caused the original DNS issue.

"We will share a detailed AWS post-event summary," AWS said in its last status update, confirming that the problems were finally resolved.

Oct 20, 2025 at 11:09 PM EDT

Previous Amazon cloud outages

Monday's outage is not the first time the company experienced system outages for hours.

According to the Associated Press, there was a brief outage in 2023, impacting popular websites. In 2021, the company also experienced an outage lasting over 5 hours, impacting numerous companies including airlines and auto dealerships.

Additional outages occurred in 2017 and 2020, the AP notes.

Oct 20, 2025 at 10:05 PM EDT

Cybersecurity expert says “slow and bumpy” recovery is “normal”

Cybersecurity expert Mike Chapple told the Associated Press that a "slow and bumpy recovery process" amid an outage like this is “entirely normal.”

Chapple, an information technology professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, warned that recovery at this level could spark smaller disruptions.

“It’s similar to what happens after a large-scale power outage: While a city’s power is coming back online, neighborhoods may see intermittent glitches as crews finish the repairs,” Chapple said.

Oct 20, 2025 at 08:20 PM EDT

Amazon says outage has been resolved

The company says the outage has been resolved as of Monday evening.

According to the AWS Health Dashboard in part, which tracked the outage, "By 3:01 PM [PT], all AWS services returned to normal operations. Some services such as AWS Config, Redshift, and Connect continue to have a backlog of messages that they will finish processing over the next few hours. We will share a detailed AWS post-event summary."

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:05 PM EDT

AWS outage sparks warning over tech sector’s economic concentration

The sweeping AWS outage that disrupted thousands of websites and services on Monday has reignited concerns about the risks of centralized digital infrastructure. Digital rights group Article 19 called the incident a “democratic failure,” pointing to the widespread impact on media platforms, secure messaging apps, and other essential services.

“When a single provider goes dark, critical services go offline with it,” said Corinne Cath-Speth, head of digital issues at Article 19. “We urgently need diversification in cloud computing.”

The group argues that relying on a handful of tech giants to support the backbone of digital society threatens resilience and access, especially during outages. The call for reform comes as recovery efforts continue across AWS’s global network.

Oct 20, 2025 at 04:42 PM EDT

AWS outage likely caused by human error, not cyberattack, expert says

As speculation swirled around the cause of Monday’s massive AWS outage, cybersecurity expert Bryson Bort clarified that the disruption was likely not the result of a cyberattack. “Whenever we see these headlines, the first thought is, ‘Is this one of those cyberattacks?’” Bort told Al Jazeera. “And in this case, it’s not.”

Bort, CEO of threat emulation firm Scythe, emphasized that most outages stem from internal missteps rather than malicious activity. “It’s usually human error,” he said, noting that while cyber threats remain a concern, infrastructure failures are often self-inflicted. AWS has not reported any evidence of external interference.

Oct 20, 2025 at 04:20 PM EDT

Major platforms stabilize after AWS outage, some services still affected

Snapchat, Amazon, Reddit, and Netflix are largely back online following Monday’s widespread AWS outage, though isolated issues persist. Some users continue to report partial disruptions on platforms like Ring, while Ancestry.com remains fully inaccessible.

AWS engineers are still working to resolve residual connectivity problems, and another service health update is expected shortly. While recovery appears to be progressing, full restoration across all affected services has yet to be confirmed.

Oct 20, 2025 at 04:06 PM EDT

AWS outage hits over 1,000 businesses—legal experts warn compensation will be limited

More than 1,000 businesses were affected by Monday’s AWS outage, and while recovery appears to be underway, the financial and reputational fallout may linger for days. Legal experts say affected companies shouldn’t expect full compensation.

Ryan Gracey, technology lawyer at Gordons, noted that AWS customers operate under standardized service level agreements (SLAs), which offer limited remedies. “Service credits are often nominal and don’t cover losses like reputational harm or lost revenue,” Gracey said. “Ultimately, customers will be left with limited recourse.”

Henna Elahi, Senior Associate at Grosvenor Law, highlighted the UK impact, pointing to disruptions at Lloyds Bank. “Failed payments and transfers could trigger contract breaches or missed purchases,” she said. “This may lead to customer complaints and attempts to recover losses from the business.”

Oct 20, 2025 at 03:53 PM EDT

What ‘request rate has been limited’ means—and why you’re seeing it today

If you’ve encountered a “request rate has been limited” error while trying to access a website or app today, you’re not alone. The message indicates that a service is temporarily blocking or delaying your activity because too many requests have been sent in a short period—either by you, your network, or a flood of users during a platform outage.

This rate-limiting mechanism is a protective measure designed to prevent server overloads, especially during high-traffic events like the AWS outage. It helps defend against denial-of-service attacks and ensures fair access for all users. Technically, it often appears as a 429 “Too Many Requests” error.

Triggers include automated queries, repeated failed actions (like login attempts), or shared network congestion. During outages, mass refresh attempts can cause “retry storms,” prompting platforms to throttle traffic.

To resolve it on a day AWS is not experiencing an outage, wait for the limit to reset, reduce your request frequency, or switch networks if you're on a VPN. For persistent issues, contacting the service provider may help clarify usage thresholds.

Oct 20, 2025 at 03:40 PM EDT

Reddit users hit by request rate errors amid ongoing AWS outage

As fallout from Monday’s massive internet disruption continues, Reddit users are reporting persistent issues with the platform.

Over the past four hours, Google Trends data shows a surge in searches for a message warning that users’ “request rate has been limited,” indicating throttled access or degraded performance.

Reddit’s status page confirmed an “elevated level of errors” beginning at 6:24 a.m. ET, with engineers investigating problems tied to its internal infrastructure.

Oct 20, 2025 at 03:27 PM EDT

Hinge joins growing list of apps disrupted by AWS outage

The popular dating app Hinge is the latest platform to be affected by Monday’s widespread Amazon Web Services outage. As of early afternoon, more than 600 users in the U.S. and over 350 in the U.K. have reported issues on Downdetector, with many unable to load the app or initiate matches.

The outage has impacted dozens of major websites and services, underscoring how deeply embedded AWS is in the digital ecosystem. While users may be experiencing a quiet day on Hinge, the disruption stems from infrastructure failures—not dating profiles. AWS engineers are still working to restore full functionality across affected regions.

Oct 20, 2025 at 03:18 PM EDT

AWS services show signs of recovery, Lambda still experiencing errors

Amazon Web Services reported progress in restoring functionality across its infrastructure following Monday’s widespread outage. As of 12:15 p.m. PDT/1:15 p.m. EDT, instance launches are succeeding in multiple Availability Zones within the US-EAST-1 region, a key hub for AWS operations.

However, AWS Lambda—used to run code in response to events—continues to experience intermittent errors, particularly for functions making network requests to other services. To stabilize performance, AWS initially reduced the rate of SQS polling via Lambda Event Source Mappings and is now gradually increasing it as invocation success improves.

Oct 20, 2025 at 03:14 PM EDT

Ransomware defenses falter when cloud infrastructure goes down

The AWS outage didn’t just affect consumer apps—it disrupted some cybersecurity platforms too. “Several major security providers rely on AWS,” said University of New Haven associate professor of Cybersecurity and Networks, Data and Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Vahid Behzadan, in an interview with Newsweek. “If those defenses go offline, businesses may be forced to disable firewalls or delay incident response.” That creates a dangerous window for ransomware attacks and other threats.

Behzadan explained that threat intelligence systems, which share attack signatures in real time, can also be impacted. “If the infrastructure that enables those defenses to run goes down, those defenses go down,” he said. He urges companies to audit their dependencies and ensure critical security functions can operate independently of any single cloud provider.

Oct 20, 2025 at 03:01 PM EDT

Cloud outages create openings for data breaches, expert warns

Cybersecurity and Networks, Data and Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering expert Dr. Vahid Behzadan told Newsweek that centralized cloud systems like AWS pose a major cybersecurity risk when they go down. “They become single points of failure,” he explained. “When one provider’s infrastructure falters, every dependent service is exposed.” The AWS outage disrupted not only consumer platforms but also backend systems used by cybersecurity vendors themselves.

Behzadan noted that some endpoint and perimeter security tools rely on AWS to function. “If your firewall fails to permit traffic, businesses may disable it just to stay operational,” he said. That workaround can create new vulnerabilities, especially if threat detection and intelligence-sharing systems are also offline.

Oct 20, 2025 at 02:48 PM EDT

AI can predict cloud failures—but it’s no substitute for resilience

Artificial intelligence plays a growing role in detecting and mitigating large-scale failures in cloud infrastructure, but University of New Haven associate professor of Cybersecurity and Networks, Data and Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Vahid Behzadan, warns that it’s not a cure-all. “AI helps predict and respond to disruptions, but it’s not a silver bullet,” he said in an interview with Newsweek following the AWS outage. Behzadan, who leads the Secure and Assured Intelligent Learning (SAIL) research group, emphasized that while AI tools are increasingly sophisticated, they must be part of a broader, systemic approach to infrastructure design.

AWS itself has pioneered AI-driven monitoring systems, yet the outage revealed critical gaps. “What happened this morning shows that even advanced predictive systems can fail if the architecture isn’t built to withstand cascading disruptions,” Behzadan said.

Oct 20, 2025 at 02:35 PM EDT

AWS begins more recovery efforts after identifying source of major outage

Amazon Web Services said early Monday afternoon that it has begun restoring connectivity and API functionality after a widespread outage disrupted internet services globally. The company traced the issue to an internal system that monitors network load, which had malfunctioned and triggered cascading failures.

To stabilize operations, AWS throttled the creation of new EC2 instances—virtual machines used by businesses to run cloud-based applications. Engineers have since taken steps to repair the monitoring system and are gradually lifting restrictions as recovery progresses. Full service restoration is still underway.

Oct 20, 2025 at 02:22 PM EDT

AWS outage could cost billions, expert warns

The widespread AWS outage on Monday may carry a staggering financial toll, with Catchpoint CEO Mehdi Daoudi estimating losses in the billions. In a statement to CNN, Daoudi said the disruption exposed the internet’s fragility and its deep entanglement with daily work and business operations.

“The financial impact of this outage will easily reach into the hundreds of billions,” Daoudi noted, citing halted productivity for millions of workers and delays across industries from airlines to manufacturing.

The outage has already caused flight disruptions, blocked purchases on popular apps, and left many unable to access financial services or complete work tasks. Recovery efforts are ongoing.

Oct 20, 2025 at 02:09 PM EDT

Here is a list of websites affected by the AWS outage

Below is a list of websites and services affected by the AWS outage, though more may be among the affected:

Oct 20, 2025 at 01:56 PM EDT

What is AWS?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the backbone of much of the internet, offering cloud-based computing power, storage, and databases to businesses on a pay-as-you-go model. Instead of investing in physical servers, companies rent resources from AWS to run websites, apps, and services more flexibly and affordably.

AWS supports a global network of data centers and powers major platforms used daily by individuals and organizations. Its key offerings include scalable cloud computing, object storage via Amazon S3, and managed databases. Benefits include lower upfront costs, rapid deployment, strong security, and global reach.

Oct 20, 2025 at 01:42 PM EDT

Fresh outage reports slam Venmo users

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Venmo has surged with nearly 8,000 outage reports on Downdetector, suggesting new disruptions.

The platform relies heavily on Amazon Web Services, which is still working to resolve lingering network issues following Monday’s widespread outage.

Engineers are investigating the root cause, while users continue to experience login failures and app instability. More updates are expected as recovery efforts progress.

Oct 20, 2025 at 01:28 PM EDT

Is Downdetector reliable?

Downdetector has become a go-to tool for spotting internet service disruptions, especially during major outages like the recent AWS failure. By aggregating user-submitted reports and social media mentions, it often signals problems before official sources do.

But its crowdsourced model has limitations. Downdetector doesn’t verify the root cause of issues, and its data can be skewed by user error or traffic spikes during peak events. Critics argue it sometimes flags outages simply because many users visit the site to check if something’s wrong.

While helpful for quick consumer checks, Downdetector lacks technical depth and coverage of smaller or enterprise platforms. For more reliable insights, IT professionals often turn to tools like StatusGator, StatusSight, or direct provider dashboards.

Oct 20, 2025 at 01:14 PM EDT

Is Canvas by Instructure experiencing an outage?

Thousands of students and educators were unable to access assignments Monday morning after the Canvas learning platform experienced widespread connectivity issues tied to an Amazon Web Services outage.

Canvas, owned by Instructure, confirmed the disruption on its status page, attributing the problem to “an ongoing AWS incident.” A message shown to users featured a damaged rocket animation and noted that recovery efforts were in progress.

The outage, which began around 10 a.m. ET, impacted login access and assignment submissions across K–12 and college systems. AWS, which powers much of Canvas’s infrastructure, is still investigating the root cause.

Oct 20, 2025 at 01:01 PM EDT

Pinterest goes dark amid ongoing AWS outage fallout

As internet platforms continue to reel from Monday’s widespread AWS outage, Pinterest has become the latest casualty. Users visiting the homepage are met with a technical error message—“upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: overflow”—instead of the usual visual inspiration.

Despite the disruption, Pinterest’s official status dashboard has yet to acknowledge any issues. It’s unclear whether a fix is imminent or if the dashboard will soon reflect the outage.

Oct 20, 2025 at 12:47 PM EDT

What is DNS and how does it relate to the AWS outage?

Monday’s AWS outage disrupted access to major apps and websites worldwide, exposing a key vulnerability in the internet’s infrastructure: the Domain Name System (DNS). Amazon later confirmed that a DNS issue contributed to the failure, affecting services like Ring, Snapchat, and banking platforms.

DNS acts as the internet’s address book, translating easy-to-remember domain names (like www.google.com) into numerical IP addresses that computers use to locate each other. Without it, users would need to memorize long strings of numbers to access websites.

When DNS fails—especially at the scale of AWS’s cloud network—entire platforms can become unreachable.

Oct 20, 2025 at 12:34 PM EDT

Amazon admits cloud services still unstable after earlier outage fix

Amazon Web Services acknowledged late Monday morning that its cloud infrastructure is still experiencing instability, despite earlier reports that a massive global outage had been resolved. The company said lingering network issues are affecting services that support thousands of apps and customer systems.

The trouble stems from AWS’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which lets businesses rent virtual servers to run applications without owning physical hardware. Amazon said an internal monitoring system malfunctioned, disrupting how EC2 tracks customer usage.

To stabilize operations, AWS is temporarily limiting new EC2 launches while engineers work to fully resolve the issue. The root cause is still under investigation.

Oct 20, 2025 at 12:21 PM EDT

Ring doorbell service hit by AWS outage

Millions of users experienced disruptions on October 20 after a major Amazon Web Services outage affected internet-connected platforms—including the Ring Doorbell system. The outage, traced to a DNS issue within AWS, temporarily disabled live feeds and app access for Ring customers.

While Ring’s doorbell cameras appear to be back online for most users, some are still reporting issues with secondary devices like security cameras. At 11:37 a.m. ET, Ring acknowledged the service interruption on X, saying it was working to resolve the problem.

AWS has since mitigated the root issue and says most services are recovering, though some may still face delays as systems clear backlogs.

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Oct 20, 2025 at 12:08 PM EDT

Xion founder calls AWS outage a wake-up call for web3 transition

Following Monday’s widespread AWS outage, XION founder Anthony Anzalone—also known as Burnt Banksy—issued a statement urging businesses to rethink their reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure. Represented by PR head Olivier Acuña, Anzalone pointed to the growing frequency and cost of outages across major Web2 providers like AWS, Azure, and AT&T, which have disrupted over 500 million users and cost up to $40 billion in the past year.

Anzalone, a NYU graduate who built XION into a $50 million walletless blockchain platform, argued that the internet’s dependence on centralized data centers creates systemic vulnerability. “Despite its distributed appearance, the internet relies on chokepoints that fail under pressure,” he said, citing the AWS outage’s impact on services like Snapchat, Roblox, and Disney+.

He emphasized that distributed blockchain infrastructure offers a resilient alternative, running data across thousands of global nodes. “The shift from Web2 to Web3 isn’t just smart—it’s inevitable for businesses that can’t afford downtime,” Anzalone added.

Oct 20, 2025 at 11:55 AM EDT

AWS outage highlights Amazon’s massive cloud footprint

Monday’s widespread service disruptions underscored the vast influence of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on the global internet. As the backbone for thousands of platforms, AWS plays a critical role in powering everything from banking apps to entertainment services.

The scale of AWS is reflected in its 2024 metrics: it held 37% of the global cloud market share, generated $107.6 billion in revenue, and operates on more than 6 million kilometers of fiber optic cabling. With availability in 38 geographic regions, AWS supports major clients including Disney, the U.S. Army, Capital One, United Airlines, and the NFL.

Oct 20, 2025 at 11:40 AM EDT

Wordle login issues resurface amid NYT Games outage

Fresh problems are hitting the New York Times' gaming platform, with users reporting login failures that are once again affecting access to Wordle and other puzzle games. According to Downdetector, 73% of complaints are tied to login issues, suggesting a widespread disruption.

Earlier signs of recovery may have been premature, as the outage appears to be ongoing. The New York Times has not yet issued an official update, leaving players—especially those with long streaks—hoping for a swift resolution.

Oct 20, 2025 at 11:27 AM EDT

AWS outage disrupts internet access worldwide: What happened and what’s next

A major Amazon Web Services fault overnight triggered widespread internet disruptions, affecting millions of users across banking apps, gaming platforms, smart devices, and social media.

At 1:26 a.m. ET, AWS confirmed “significant error rates for requests,” with services like Coinbase, Perplexity, Flickr, PlayStation, and even Amazon itself displaying error messages. UK banks, including Halifax, Lloyds, and Bank of Scotland, were also impacted.

By 2 a.m., AWS said it had identified the root cause and was working on multiple recovery paths. Its health dashboard later showed signs of improvement, and by morning, AWS reported the outage had been “fully mitigated,” though some services continued to experience delays.

Tech analyst Lance Ulanoff told CNN the incident underscores AWS’s central role in powering smart devices and digital infrastructure. The exact cause of the outage remains under investigation.

Oct 20, 2025 at 11:14 AM EDT

AWS confirms ongoing server issues in key U.S. region

Amazon Web Services reported significant API and connectivity issues on Monday across multiple services in its US-EAST-1 region, one of its busiest data hubs. The company said it is actively investigating the disruption and will provide another update within 30 minutes or sooner if new details emerge.

The outage has impacted a wide range of platforms that rely on AWS infrastructure, contributing to service interruptions for apps, websites, and enterprise tools. AWS has not yet disclosed the root cause of the issue.

Oct 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM EDT

Elon Musk mocks AWS outage, promotes X messaging features

As a major Amazon Web Services outage disrupted much of the internet on Monday morning, Elon Musk took to X to highlight that his platform remained unaffected. “Not us,” he replied to a post listing impacted services, later sharing memes targeting Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos.

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Musk also used the moment to promote X’s new encrypted chat feature, contrasting it with Signal, which faced issues during the outage. “I don’t trust Signal anymore,” he wrote, adding that X messages are “fully encrypted with no advertising hooks or strange ‘AWS dependencies.’”

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Oct 20, 2025 at 10:47 AM EDT

AWS outage triggers millions of global disruption reports

Amazon Web Services’ widespread outage Monday morning disrupted millions of users worldwide before the company declared the issue “fully mitigated.” According to Down Detector data shared by Ookla, the outage generated over 6.5 million user-submitted reports across more than a dozen countries.

In the first two hours alone, the U.S. logged over 1 million reports, with the total rising to 1.4 million. The U.K. followed with more than 800,000 reports, while the Netherlands and Australia each saw around 400,000. France and Japan reported over 350,000 disruptions apiece.

Oct 20, 2025 at 10:33 AM EDT

Robinhood trading platform disrupted by AWS outage

Robinhood Markets, Inc. confirmed Monday that its services were affected by a broader Amazon Web Services outage, which has impacted numerous platforms across industries. The company acknowledged the disruption via its @AskRobinhood support account, citing AWS as a third-party vendor and assuring users that it is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Robinhood operates a popular electronic trading platform for stocks, cryptocurrency, and other financial instruments. The outage comes during peak market hours, raising concerns about access and transaction delays for retail investors. Updates are expected as AWS continues recovery efforts.

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Oct 20, 2025 at 10:20 AM EDT

WATCH: Newsweek explains the AWS outage

A sharp spike in Amazon Web Services users reported issues early on Monday morning, leading to outages and widespread disruption across many major websites, apps, and platforms that use AWS.

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Oct 20, 2025 at 10:07 AM EDT

AWS outage triggers 6.5 million reports across 1,000 companies

The scale of Monday’s Amazon Web Services outage was staggering, with more than 6.5 million user reports logged across over 1,000 companies, according to Down Detector via the BBC.

While Snapchat was among the most visible platforms affected, the disruption extended to banks, airlines, media outlets, and retail apps.

Oct 20, 2025 at 09:53 AM EDT

Amazon cloud outage still causing problems for some services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is still working to fix a major issue that’s been affecting parts of the internet. The problem is making it hard for companies to launch new virtual servers—basically, the online machines that power websites and apps.

To help things recover faster, AWS is limiting how many new servers can be started right now. This slowdown is also affecting other services that rely on those servers, like databases and app-building tools.

Amazon says it’s made progress in several areas but still hasn’t fully fixed the issue. Another update is expected soon.

Oct 20, 2025 at 09:40 AM EDT

Duolingo outage tied to AWS failure disrupts global access

Duolingo is facing a major worldwide outage due to a large-scale disruption at Amazon Web Services (AWS), affecting access to the language-learning app and other platforms. Users are encountering “maintenance break” and “please try again later” messages, though this is not a scheduled update—it stems from a broader cloud infrastructure failure.

The outage has triggered widespread reports of app inaccessibility across regions. Duolingo typically safeguards user streaks during technical issues, so lost progress will likely be restored once service resumes.

Users are advised not to troubleshoot their devices, as the issue is external. For updates, check Duolingo’s status page. If problems persist after recovery, clearing the cache or restarting the app may help.

Oct 20, 2025 at 09:27 AM EDT

Chime and Starbucks apps hit by AWS outage, recovery underway

Chime and Starbucks are among the latest services affected by Monday’s Amazon Web Services outage, with both apps experiencing spikes in user complaints.

Chime, the mobile banking platform, had earlier reported a “third party outage” but now lists “all systems operational” on its status page, signaling resolution.

Starbucks, meanwhile, continues to face issues. More than 1,500 users reported problems on Downdetector, citing failures in mobile ordering and rewards access. The app remains unstable for many, though outage reports are beginning to decline.

Oct 20, 2025 at 09:13 AM EDT

When did AWS go down?

A widespread Amazon Web Services outage early Monday disrupted access to banks, airlines, media platforms, and delivery apps, as a DNS failure severed connections to key data systems. The issue temporarily blocked access to DynamoDB, a core AWS database used by countless companies to manage customer and operational data.

Mike Chapple, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Notre Dame, described the disruption as “temporary amnesia” for the internet, noting that while data remained intact, systems couldn’t locate it.

Amazon resolved the DNS issue by 6:35 a.m. ET and advised clients to clear cached data to accelerate recovery. Other services, including EC2 virtual servers, continued to be affected.

Oct 20, 2025 at 09:00 AM EDT

How common are global outages?

Major internet outages are becoming more frequent and costly, driven by growing reliance on digital infrastructure and the concentration of services among a few dominant cloud providers. While large-scale failures were rare in the 20th century, the number of significant incidents has surged—from just a handful in the 1960s and 1970s to over 80 in the first half of the 2020s.

The central role of providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google amplifies the risks. A single disruption can cascade across industries, affecting billions of users. Smaller, localized outages now occur daily, quietly disrupting operations for businesses worldwide.

The July 2024 CrowdStrike incident, triggered by a faulty software update, exemplified the scale of potential damage, causing $5.4 billion in losses for Fortune 500 companies and affecting airlines, banks, and hospitals. As digital systems become more embedded in the global economy, even brief outages carry outsized consequences.

Oct 20, 2025 at 08:47 AM EDT

AWS outage highlights fragility of digital supply chains, expert warns

Monday’s AWS outage disrupted services across platforms like Slack, Zoom, and Amazon, exposing vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure. Sam Harris, Vice President at global consultancy Proxima, told Newsweek the incident underscores how supply chain risk extends beyond physical goods.

“Dependency risk isn’t limited to manufacturing or logistics—it exists deep within digital infrastructure too,” Harris said. He noted that businesses with redundant workloads may have avoided significant disruption, while others faced concentrated outages where AWS was dominant.

Harris added that building genuine redundancy is costly, but essential for sectors where even brief downtime is unacceptable. As demand for AI and cloud services grows, he warned, “outages like this could become more common,” urging companies to invest in visibility and optionality across their supplier networks.

Oct 20, 2025 at 08:33 AM EDT

Snapchat and Canva hit by cloud-related disruptions

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Snapchat users continued to face technical issues on Monday, with the company acknowledging ongoing problems. “We’re aware that some Snapchatters are having issues using the app right now – hang tight, we’re looking into it,” a spokesperson said.

Canva also experienced a temporary outage tied to its cloud provider. A spokesperson confirmed that service had been restored for many users and that teams were working to fully resolve the issue. Updates are being posted at status.canva.com.

Both incidents appear linked to broader cloud infrastructure instability affecting multiple platforms.

Oct 20, 2025 at 08:20 AM EDT

Ring outage follows Reddit recovery amid ongoing AWS disruption

Ring users in the U.S. and U.K. reported thousands of service issues Monday, marking one of the security platform’s most extensive outages this year. The spike followed Reddit’s recovery and appears tied to the broader Amazon Web Services disruption affecting dozens of platforms.

Ring, owned by Amazon, has not issued a formal statement, but users continue to encounter connection errors and location-loading failures. For many, the outage has temporarily disabled access to doorbells and security cameras.

AWS confirmed that it is still working to fully restore impacted services, as the ripple effects of the cloud infrastructure failure continue to spread across the internet.

Oct 20, 2025 at 08:07 AM EDT

AWS outage blamed on DNS failure, sparks cloud resilience debate

Monday’s Amazon Web Services disruption in the US-EAST-1 region was traced to a DNS failure, a foundational element of internet infrastructure. Marek Szustak, IT Security Officer at eSky Group, told Newsweek the incident illustrates how even minor components can cripple massive cloud environments.

“When domain name resolution stops working, entire applications and services can stop responding, no matter how well they are designed,” Szustak said.

He urged companies to adopt cloud architectures with built-in redundancy and geographic distribution, noting that emergency scenario testing should be standard practice. “It’s always DNS,” he added, echoing a common refrain among engineers.

Oct 20, 2025 at 07:54 AM EDT

AWS outage disrupts airline websites

Delta and United Airlines were among the carriers affected by Monday morning’s Amazon Web Services disruption, which left some travelers unable to check in or access reservations for several hours. AWS acknowledged “increased error rates and latencies” in its US-EAST-1 region, later reporting “significant signs of recovery” by 5:27 a.m. ET.

United confirmed a “system glitch” on X and said it was updating its tools, though no timeline was provided. Delta and United did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Despite the digital hiccups, global flight delays remained minimal, according to FlightAware. Some users reported intermittent access to reservations via airline apps, while others took to social media to flag issues with bag drop and check-in.

The incident drew comparisons to the July 2024 CrowdStrike outage, when a faulty software update crippled Microsoft Windows systems worldwide. That event forced Delta to cancel over 5,000 flights and led to more than $500 million in losses.

Oct 20, 2025 at 07:52 AM EDT

AWS update: EC2 launches still impaired, Lambda delays persist

Amazon Web Services said early Monday it is still working to fully restore EC2 instance launches in its US-EAST-1 region, following a disruption that has affected multiple services. The company advised users to avoid targeting specific Availability Zones to allow greater flexibility for recovery.

The impairment is also impacting related services, including RDS, ECS, and Glue. AWS recommends configuring Auto Scaling Groups to span multiple zones to help manage instance launches more effectively.

Meanwhile, AWS is pursuing mitigation steps to address polling delays in Lambda’s Event Source Mappings for SQS. Features relying on this capability, such as Organization policy updates, are experiencing elevated processing times. 5:30 a.m. PDT expects a further update.

Oct 20, 2025 at 07:41 AM EDT

AWS outage sparks internet disruption, highlights cloud dependency: ‘When a major cloud provider sneezes, the Internet catches a cold’

A widespread Amazon Web Services outage early Monday disrupted major platforms, including Snapchat and Ring, with cybersecurity expert Mike Chapple attributing the issue to DynamoDB. This core AWS database service supports countless apps and websites.

Chapple, a professor at Notre Dame and former NSA computer scientist, told Newsweek the problem wasn’t with the database itself, but with the system that helps other services locate their data. “Amazon had the data safely stored, but nobody else could find it for several hours,” he said, likening the incident to “temporary amnesia” across the Internet.

The outage highlights the global reliance on a few dominant cloud providers—Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. As Chapple put it, “When a major cloud provider sneezes, the Internet catches a cold.”

Oct 20, 2025 at 07:28 AM EDT

AWS outage rekindles memories of 2024’s global tech meltdown

As Amazon Web Services works to resolve its latest service disruption, the full cause remains unclear. However, the incident has revived memories of a far more devastating outage that occurred in July 2024.

That event stemmed from a faulty software update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which triggered widespread system failures. Airlines grounded flights, hospitals postponed appointments, and businesses lost access to critical platforms, paralyzing operations across various sectors.

It took investigators days to trace the issue to the update, revealing how deeply embedded and fragile the global digital infrastructure had become. The fallout cost Fortune 500 companies an estimated $5 billion in direct losses, underscoring the significant economic risks associated with software dependencies.

Oct 20, 2025 at 07:15 AM EDT

AWS services stabilize after widespread disruption

Amazon Web Services said Monday that most affected websites and applications have returned to normal operations following a service disruption. The company confirmed that the root cause has been addressed, though users may still encounter intermittent delays.

In a status update, AWS noted that “some requests may be throttled while we work toward full resolution,” signaling ongoing efforts to restore full performance across its infrastructure.

The outage had impacted a range of platforms reliant on AWS cloud services, prompting temporary slowdowns and access issues.

Oct 20, 2025 at 07:02 AM EDT

How much could this AWS outage cost?

With so many multibillion-dollar industries hit by the latest AWS outage, there is likely to be a large financial cost due to the AWS outage.

It is too early to say what the financial impact of today's outage has been.

But back in 2017, the four-hour S3 outage—AWS's cloud object storage service—caused S&P 500 companies losses of $150 million, according to an estimate by cyber risk firm Cyence.

Oct 20, 2025 at 06:39 AM EDT

Latest AWS status update says underlying issue “has been fully mitigated”

"The underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, and most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now," said AWS in its latest status update. "Some requests may be throttled while we work toward full resolution."

Oct 20, 2025 at 06:35 AM EDT

reddit users continue to be rate limited, see “too many requests” message

There is still a large number of reddit users reporting issues with the social media site early on Monday morning, according to Downdetector.

It is not immediately clear if these issues relate to the AWS outage or are a separate issue.

"We're experiencing an elevated level of errors and are currently looking into the issue," says a service status message from reddit posted at 3:24 a.m. PDT.

Oct 20, 2025 at 06:30 AM EDT

AWS outage could drive disputes over failed payments

Failed authorizations and other payment issues caused by the outage will lead to weeks of trouble for merchants, the founder of a chargebacks firm has warned.

“When AWS sneezes, half the internet catches the flu," said Monica Eaton, founder and CEO of Florida-based Chargebacks911 and Fi911, in a statement.

"Outages like this cause frustrated users, but also triggers a domino effect across payment flows. Failed authorizations, duplicate charges, broken confirmation pages, all of that fuels a wave of disputes that merchants will be cleaning up for weeks. And once a customer files a dispute, you are already on the back foot.

“What I expect now is a spike in ‘I never got my service’ or ‘I was charged twice’ claims. Many of those won’t be fraud, just confusion. But confusion is the number one driver of chargebacks. If merchants sit back and wait for disputes to roll in, they will bleed revenue unnecessarily.”

Eaton added: “The outage will end long before the disputes do. Any business that treats this as a one-day incident is already behind. Downtime happens, but silence and slow responses are what cause real damage.”

Oct 20, 2025 at 06:15 AM EDT

Downdetector sees sharp fall in AWS users reporting issues

There has been a big fall from the peak in the number of AWS users reporting problems with the service to Downdetector, a sign that the recovery is in full swing, as this real-time chart from the outage tracker shows:

Oct 20, 2025 at 06:10 AM EDT

AWS sees recovery across most of the affected services

"We continue to observe recovery across most of the affected AWS Services," says AWS in its latest update.

"We continue to work towards full resolution and will provide updates as we have more information to share."

Oct 20, 2025 at 06:09 AM EDT

What is AWS?

Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is a cloud computing platform used by a wide range of websites, apps, and other digital services to provide some of the back-end IT infrastructure they need to make them work and keep them online. AWS offers the likes of data storage, computing, databases, artificial intelligence agents, and more to paying customers.

It is one of the three largest service providers in the cloud computing space, and caters to millions of customers—explaining the huge impact its outage had this morning.

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:55 AM EDT

Downdetector reveals scale of AWS outage

The outage tracker Downdetector told the BBC that over 500 companies were reporting issues with their services across the world amid the AWS problem—leading to more than four million reports this morning alone.

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:47 AM EDT

AWS outage is a global warning

Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at Check Point Software, said in a statement that the AWS outage "is another reminder that the digital world doesn’t stop at borders - a local fault can ripple worldwide in minutes. We’ve built convenience on shared systems, but resilience still depends on people and process."

"For individuals, that means keeping good back-ups, saving key information offline, and knowing alternative ways to connect or pay if systems fail. Stay alert for scams or phishing attempts, especially when banking sites are down, and never click links or share details you don’t recognize," Wilson said.

"For organizations, it’s time to diversify. Don’t keep everything in one cloud. Test your failovers, train your teams, and plan for downtime before it arrives. When companies rush to restore access, systems and staff are stretched thin, and that’s when attackers strike. Expect a spike in fake ‘refund’ or ‘discount’ offers, phishing emails, and scam links claiming to fix the problem.

"It’s not just businesses at risk. Many of the affected platforms are games and apps used by children, a prime time for scammers to exploit trust. Because the internet may be global, but resilience starts local - with what each of us does next.”

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:33 AM EDT

AWS offers promising update on outages

"We are seeing significant signs of recovery," says the most recent status update from AWS, issued at 5:27 a.m. ET.

"Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests. We will continue to provide additional information."

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:19 AM EDT

AWS says it has “identified a potential root cause” of the problem

According to a service update posted by AWS just after 5 a.m. ET (2 a.m. PDT), its tech team has "identified a potential root cause" of the problem, which it is working to resolve.

"During this time, customers may be unable to create or update Support Cases," the update says. "We recommend customers continue to retry any failed requests. We will continue to provide updates as we have more information to share, or by 2:45 AM (PDT)."

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:15 AM EDT

Is Snapchat down? App users report issues

There was a big rise in the number of Snapchat users reporting problems with the image and video-sharing social media app amid the AWS outage.

The support page on Snapchat's website was also down at the time of writing with the message: "Too many requests."

Oct 20, 2025 at 05:06 AM EDT

List of services down amid AWS outage

According to Downdetector, issues have been reported across a wide range of sites, although it's not clear if they are all directly connected to the AWS outage or a different issue. Problems have been reported on:

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