FILE – A worker is seen typing on a laptop at work in this file image dated July 25, 2018. (Photo by: Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
A major outage affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused widespread disruptions early Monday, impacting apps, financial platforms, and companies that rely on its cloud computing infrastructure, according to The Associated Press.
What we know:
The first signs of trouble emerged around 3:11 a.m. Eastern Time when Amazon Web Services reported “increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services” in the U.S.-East-1 region.
Soon after, users across multiple platforms began reporting widespread outages on DownDetector, a website that tracks online disruptions. Apps such as Snapchat, Roblox, and Signal confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that they were experiencing issues connected to the AWS outage. Even The Associated Press was affected.
About two hours later, Amazon said it had applied “initial mitigations,” and by midmorning the company reported “significant signs of recovery.” Engineers said most requests were succeeding, though they were still clearing a backlog of queued data. The issue affected a range of AWS clients — from major corporations and tech platforms to public agencies — showing the massive scale of reliance on Amazon’s cloud network.
What we don’t know:
Amazon has not yet disclosed the cause of the outage. It remains unclear whether it was triggered by a technical malfunction, a software update gone wrong, or another infrastructure failure. The company has also not confirmed the total number of customers impacted, as reports of disruptions vary across different regions and services.
What’s next:
AWS engineers continue to monitor and stabilize systems to ensure full restoration of service across all affected regions. The company is expected to provide additional updates once the cause of the outage is identified and mitigation steps are complete.
Cybersecurity experts say this incident highlights the world’s growing dependence on a handful of major cloud service providers — including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — that host a vast portion of the global internet infrastructure. Many companies are now expected to conduct post-incident reviews to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen their redundancy systems.
What they’re saying:
“So much of the world now relies on these three or four big cloud computing companies… when there’s an issue like this, it can be really impactful,” said Patrick Burgess, a cybersecurity expert at the U.K.-based Chartered Institute for IT.
