<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/amazon-web-services-aws-major-internet-outages-fortnite-snapchat-roblox-canva/fec1083a-3def-47f3-ae8f-79948caebbf2" rel="" target="_blank" title="glitch at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centre"><span>glitch at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centre</span></a><span> in the US left millions around the world unable to access half the internet, but how exactly did it cause the widespread disruption?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AWS recorded "increased error rates" yesterday evening that continued for more than 15 hours, affecting some of the most popular social media platforms, websites and online services.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It has been described as the largest disruption since the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/technology/microsoft-crowdstrike-outage-ceo-says-deeply-sorry-faulty-software-blamed/3fa695e6-843a-49e6-8a22-7a2543a5c9b7" rel="" target="_blank" title="CrowdStrike outage of 2024"><span>CrowdStrike outage of 2024</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As services return to normal, here is everything we know about what caused yesterday's mammoth shutdown.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/anz-bank-resolves-issue-which-left-customers-unable-to-access-multiple-services/289f087f-b3ee-40fa-b58f-3f87f6a60f44" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>'I can't pay': ANZ outage leaves customers unable to access services</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>What is Amazon Web Services?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Let's start at basics.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/aws-outage-what-happened-who-is-impacted-everything-you-need-to-know-explained/65fa4136-1c6d-4b1e-8d46-e48691a39849" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AWS is a subsidiary of billionaire Jeff Bezos' Amazon and the world's most broadly adopted cloud service — a way of storing files and applications over the internet rather than on physical devices.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It provides power, storage and databases to companies, universities and governments.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We offer the greatest choice of innovative cloud capabilities and expertise, on the most extensive global infrastructure with industry-leading security, reliability, and performance," AWS says on its website. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AWS controls more than 41 per cent of the global market, with Microsoft and Google as the next biggest competitiors.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With some of the world's largest companies relying on the service, it's no surprise that a glitch would cripple half the internet. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/china-criticism-australia-south-china-sea-air-force-encounter/5a871926-a616-4268-a7e4-ee357da1f7b5" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>China hits out at Australia over 'illegal' air force incident</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>What is the current status of the AWS outage? </span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Amazon said it first began seeing errors to AWS services about 5.50pm AEDT yesterday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Three hours later, the underlying issue was located and crews saw "significant signs of recovery".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Amazon later said it was still experiencing "significant API errors and connectivity issues across multiple services" and began investigating the "root cause".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>About 9am today, all AWS services returned to normal and the operation issue has been marked as resolved.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>What caused the AWS outage?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AWS' DynamoDB is a database that hosts information for companies, including customer data.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This was failing to work because of an error to the domain name system (DNS) at its data centre in northern Virginia — one of the most important cloud hubs in the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>DNS is the service that translates internet addresses into machine-readable IP addresses that connects browsers and apps with websites and online services.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Essentially, it acts as a phonebook, connecting devices to servers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Any errors can disrupt the translation process and, therefore, interrupt the connection.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/opposition-leader-sussan-ley-says-kevin-rudd-position-is-untenable-after-donald-trump-meeting/b8051ec4-1491-4ca8-a4ba-e9cbe26285f7" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>PM urged to 'back him or sack him' after Rudd's icy Trump exchange</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>What websites and apps were down because of the outage?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, recorded more than 11 million reports to hundreds of services.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Social media and chat platforms Snapchat, Reddit, Signal and Whatsapp were affected.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Users reported outages to Disney+, 9Now, Hinge, Tinder, Coinbase, Robinhood, Life360, Tidal, EA Games, Roblox, Fortnite, Venmo, Xero Canva, Slack, Zoom, and Duolingo.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Starbucks, DoorDash and Lyft confirmed briefly seeing issues.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Amazon's own website, PrimeVideo and Alexa also faced problems.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the United Kingdom, Lloyds Bank, the Bank of Scotland, Vodafone and BT were impacted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Yesterday's outage is a prime example of the warnings experts have been raising for years about the potentially dire consequences of allowing a handful of companies to dominate major internet operations. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-and-us-rare-earths-deal-why-critical-minerals-are-so-vital-explained/c8ccd0ac-b0a1-467b-bdd3-ee35823d6d92" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Why the Australia-US rare earths deal matters so much for Trump</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Has this happened in the past?</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The last time there was a disruption of this magnitude was in 2024.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A faulty software update by </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/technology/explained-what-is-crowdstrike/fcbbad64-ac92-4650-987d-e74b325e0bab" rel="" target="_blank" title="cybersecurity company CrowdStrike"><span>cybersecurity company CrowdStrike</span></a><span> impacted devices running Microsoft's Windows, which caused issues to airports, hospitals, banks and other services across the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This is also not the first time there has been an outage related to Amazon’s key services.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Many popular internet services and publishers were down after a brief outage in 2023.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AWS’s longest outage in recent history affected companies, from airline reservations and auto dealerships to payment apps and video streaming services, for more than five hours in late 2021.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Other major outages happened in 2017 and 2020.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>— </span><em><span>With Associated Press </span></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="" title=""><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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