A widespread outage in Amazon Web Services (AWS) triggered global disruptions Monday, affecting millions of users and crippling platforms ranging from social media and banking to gaming and home security.

The glitch, traced to a domain name system (DNS) failure in AWS’s U.S. operations, began mid-morning and quickly cascaded across continents. Popular apps like Canva, Snapchat, Airbnb, and Prime Video experienced outages, while gaming platforms including Roblox and Fortnite crashed. UK banks such as Lloyds reported login issues, and Amazon’s own Ring cameras and streaming services faltered. DownDetector recorded a surge in complaints worldwide.

AWS acknowledged the issue three hours into the blackout, attributing it to DNS errors that misroute web addresses. “We’re starting to recover,” the company posted, with services gradually resuming by late afternoon.

Cybersecurity expert Patrick Burgess of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, called the incident a wake-up call: “When there’s an issue like this, it can be really impactful,” he said, noting that a handful of firms underpin much of the internet’s infrastructure.

The outage echoes previous AWS failures, including a multi-hour disruption in 2023 and a five-hour breakdown in 2021. It also follows similar incidents from competitors, such as Microsoft’s July Windows crash that grounded flights and disrupted hospitals.

As digital reliance intensifies, experts and industry leaders are renewing calls for diversified infrastructure to reduce vulnerability and ensure resilience in the face of future shocks.