What Causes the AWS Outage? Major Internet Disruption Explained

An overnight outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on October 20, 2025, caused a massive internet disruption, taking down major sites like Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, and Ring. The blackout, which began shortly after midnight Pacific Time, lasted over three hours and affected hundreds of platforms across social media, gaming, finance, and cloud-based services.

AWS, the cloud division of Amazon, confirmed that a Domain Name System (DNS) issue was behind the widespread outage. While most services are now back online, the incident has highlighted the risks of relying heavily on a few major cloud providers to keep the internet functioning smoothly.

How the AWS Outage Unfolded Overnight

The trouble started just after midnight PT when AWS reported “increased error rates and latencies” in its US-EAST-1 region — one of its most heavily used data centers. Within hours, sites that rely on AWS infrastructure began experiencing slowdowns or total service loss. Popular platforms such as Fortnite, Venmo, and the PlayStation Network all went offline, while banking services and airline systems were also affected.

By around 2 a.m. PT, AWS had identified the likely root cause and began implementing fixes. “The underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, and most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now,” the company reported at 3:35 a.m. PT. However, ripple effects continued beyond that point, with platforms like Reddit and YouTube still experiencing problems closer to 4 a.m. PT.

The outage underscored just how much of the internet depends on AWS’s cloud backbone. According to Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, reports spiked across dozens of industries — from telecom carriers to online banking — demonstrating the far-reaching consequences of a single failure in the cloud ecosystem.

Why a DNS Issue Can Take Down the Internet

Amazon attributed the disruption to a “DNS issue,” a technical fault that occurs when the system translating website names into IP addresses stops working. DNS — the Domain Name System — acts as the internet’s phone book, converting easy-to-read domain names like “CNET.com” into numerical addresses computers use to find one another.

When DNS fails, browsers cannot connect to websites, even if those sites themselves are online. Usually, DNS issues are isolated and affect only one site. But because AWS underpins vast portions of the web, a problem at its scale can have global repercussions.

While there’s no evidence that malicious actors were involved in this outage, cybersecurity experts caution that such disruptions can create opportunities for hackers. Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN, warned that outages “are as much a cybersecurity issue as a technical one” because attackers may exploit weakened defenses during downtime. He also urged users to be vigilant against phishing scams that may attempt to capitalize on awareness of the outage.

Technical failures like this highlight the internet’s structural vulnerabilities. A handful of companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, host much of the web’s infrastructure. While this concentration has enabled rapid digital growth, it also means that a single point of failure can bring major parts of the internet offline in minutes.

Broader Impact and Lessons from the AWS Outage

This latest disruption is part of a growing pattern. Similar incidents involving Fastly in 2021 and CrowdStrike in 2024 revealed the fragility of the internet’s backbone. As cloud computing continues to expand, the dependency on a small number of providers has become a critical point of concern for businesses, governments, and consumers alike.

The October 20 outage serves as a reminder of the cascading effects one technical issue can have. While AWS was able to restore services within hours, businesses relying on its platform suffered downtime, revenue loss, and customer frustration. For individuals, the blackout was an inconvenience; for companies, it was a costly disruption.

The incident has reignited calls for more resilient and decentralized infrastructure. As reliance on cloud platforms grows, so too does the need for robust backup systems and contingency plans to keep essential services online even when a major provider goes down.

FYI (keeping you in the loop)-

Q1: What causes the AWS outage?

The outage was caused by a DNS issue, which disrupted the system that connects website names with their corresponding IP addresses, cutting off access to many online services.

Q2: How long did the AWS outage last?

The outage began shortly after midnight PT and was mostly resolved by 3:35 a.m. PT, lasting around three and a half hours.

Q3: Which services were affected by the AWS outage?

Major platforms including Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, Venmo, PlayStation Network, Ring, and parts of Amazon itself were impacted.

Q4: Could hackers have caused the outage?

There is currently no evidence of malicious activity. The disruption appears to have been a technical DNS failure, though experts warn such incidents can create vulnerabilities.

Q5: What does this mean for the future of cloud services?

The incident highlights the risks of centralizing internet infrastructure with a few major providers and underscores the need for more resilient systems.