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Monday, Oct. 20th

On the morning of Monday, October 20th, 2025, a massive Amazon Web Services (AWS) 15-hour-long outage began in the US-East-1 region (Virginia). AWS runs a huge part of the internet, so when it failed, many websites and apps stopped working around the globe. The problem started with an internal DNS (Domain Name System) error that prevented applications from locating the correct address for DynamoDB. AWS’ DynamoDB is a cloud database that stores user information and other critical data. The outage lasted for most of the day, causing widespread online issues before recovery began in the afternoon as over 11 million users online reported issues on several different social media sites and platforms.

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Apps and Services Affected

The outage hit thousands of companies and apps. Popular services like Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, Slack, Signal, Coinbase, and Peloton went down. Even Amazon’s own services — including Alexa, Ring, Kindle, and the main Amazon shopping site — were affected. Some airlines like Delta and United, banks like Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, and school platforms like Canva also experienced disruptions. Here’s a list of the all of the apps and services that were affected:

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How The Issue Was Resolved

Amazon engineers worked through the day to find and fix the problem. By around 6 p.m. Eastern Time the same day, AWS announced that all systems were back to normal and everything was fully resolved. The company confirmed it was a technical failure, not a cyberattack. Experts said this outage showed how much the world depends on a few cloud companies like Amazon, and that more backup systems are needed to prevent disruptions like that in the future. What are your thoughts on the whole incident? Share your thoughts by clicking the comment button on your right-hand side! Tune in for more articles!

Sources:

• • https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/24/amazon-reveals-cause-of-aws-outage?
  • https://www.theverge.com/news/802486/aws-outage-alexa-fortnite-snapchat-offline?
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/10/20/aws-outage-amazon-fortnite-snapchat-offline/?
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/21/what-caused-amazons-aws-outage-and-why-did-so-many-major-apps-go-offline?
  • https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazons-cloud-unit-reports-outage-several-websites-down-2025-10-20/?