Massive Internet Outage Cripples Top Apps and Banks — Snapchat, Amazon, and Lloyds Among Those Hit

Major Internet Outage Hits Popular Apps and Banks – Thousands Left Unable to Log In This Morning

A major internet problem caused chaos this morning as some of the world’s most popular apps and websites suddenly stopped working. The issue started just after 8am and has been linked to a fault with Amazon Web Services (AWS) — a company that runs much of the technology behind many everyday apps.

When AWS goes down, it can affect lots of other services at once. Today, that included:

• Snapchat

• Amazon (shopping and Alexa)

• Ring doorbells

• Roblox

• Canva

• MyFitnessPal

• Wise (online banking)

• Lloyds Bank

• Halifax

• HMRC

• National Rail Enquiries

Thousands of people took to social media this morning to report problems logging in, making payments, or even checking travel information.

Amazon says its engineers were “immediately engaged” and have now found what caused the problem. They’ve applied fixes, and most services are slowly starting to recover, though some may still be running slower than usual.

The issue was caused by a technical fault in one of Amazon’s main data systems in the US, which supports websites and apps used across the world.

Everything is now gradually returning to normal, but users are being advised to be patient while the systems fully recover.