A significant interruption to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the powerful cloud computing platform that underpins a vast portion of the internet, brought countless websites and applications to a halt for over two hours. This latest incident serves as a stark reminder of how vulnerable our global technology infrastructure truly is.
The outage, which began shortly after 3 a.m. Eastern, impacted a wide array of digital services, from major banking platforms and popular gaming sites to streaming entertainment and payment apps. By 5:27 a.m., Amazon reported that most services were gradually returning to normal, though engineers were still working to clear a backlog of requests.
High-profile casualties of the disruption included WhatsApp, critical British government websites (including tax services), the payment application Venmo, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and even games hosted by The New York Times. Beyond these, numerous other companies and retailers, such as Amazon itself, Hulu, Snapchat, Ring doorbells, and McDonald’s, also reported service interruptions.
The precise cause of the outage remained unclear immediately following the incident, with no initial signs pointing to a malicious cyberattack.
Technology experts quickly highlighted how this event underscores the internet’s heavy dependence on a handful of dominant providers, like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Such centralization means that a single point of failure can cascade into widespread disruption for millions of users. This phenomenon was notably demonstrated last year when a widespread, day-long internet outage was triggered by a faulty software update from a lesser-known cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike.
Amazon Web Services serves thousands of clients who rely on its robust infrastructure for highly demanding, data-intensive tasks such as video streaming, running complex web applications, and storing massive amounts of digital information. Amazon’s cloud division has established a global network of data centers, enabling businesses to deliver their products and services to customers worldwide. This model allows clients to scale their operations dynamically without the hefty upfront investment in their own hardware.
Harry Halpin, CEO of the virtual private network service NymVPN, suggested that the problem might have originated from a technical glitch within one of Amazon’s primary data centers. However, he emphasized the inherent opacity of cloud platform operations, making it impossible to determine the exact cause without Amazon’s full disclosure, including whether a cyberattack was involved.
Halpin, whose company provides VPN services to soldiers in Ukraine, recounted waking to a flurry of emails from the front lines inquiring about the disruption. He stressed that this vulnerability extends to other Western governments, many of whom similarly rely on these essential cloud services.
“If your entire nation’s infrastructure relies on a few providers, all in the United States, and anything can go down at any moment, either for malicious reasons or just technical errors, that’s an exceedingly dangerous situation,” Halpin stated.
Dr. Halpin, a former research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, added, “Everyone takes it for normal. But it’s not normal,” referring to the internet’s critical dependence on a small number of providers.
Amazon’s initial statement confirmed an “operational” issue impacting several services in its Northern Virginia region. Engineers were actively working to contain the effects and pinpoint the root cause.
Amro Al-Said Ahmad, a computer science lecturer at Keele University in England, noted that Amazon’s “us-east-1” region in Northern Virginia hosts one of its largest data centers. He explained that while cloud computing generally performs well for daily operations, even a minor error, such as a flawed update, can lead to a complete system failure.
Media advocacy groups also weighed in, stating that the outage, which impacted secure communication apps like Signal and other digital tools, highlights a potential threat to free speech posed by the internet’s reliance on a few major tech companies.
“When a single provider goes dark, critical services go offline with it,” said Corinne Cath-Speth, head of digital for Article 19, a free speech advocacy organization. She underscored the urgent necessity for greater diversification in cloud computing services.
“The infrastructure underpinning democratic discourse, independent journalism, and secure communications cannot be dependent on a handful of companies,” she asserted.
Despite the widespread disruption, Amazon’s share price showed little movement in premarket trading, indicating that investors were largely unconcerned by the incident. In the first half of the year, Amazon Web Services contributed nearly 20% of Amazon’s total sales and a substantial 60% of its operating profit.
Melissa Eddy in Berlin and Andrés R. Martínez in Seoul contributed to this report.