The internet briefly came crashing down earlier this week when a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage disrupted thousands of websites and online platforms across the world.
In a detailed report by James Peckham and a statement from Amazon, the tech giant confirmed that the October 20 outage which affected users in over 60 countries was caused by a “latent defect” in its DynamoDB Domain Name System (DNS). This technical flaw made it impossible for AWS to connect users to the sites and apps they were trying to access, sparking frustration for millions of people globally.
The issue originated from Amazon’s US-East-1 data center, one of its biggest and most vital hubs. The defect prevented the system from automatically repairing itself, leading to a chain reaction that crippled several interconnected AWS services.
“We know how critical our services are to our customers, their applications, and their businesses,” Amazon said in a statement. “We recognize this event impacted many customers in significant ways.”
The company confirmed that services were fully restored by 3:01 p.m. PT on Monday and pledged to release a detailed post-event summary explaining the full breakdown.
Analysts estimate the financial impact of the global outage could reach billions of dollars, given that AWS supports some of the world’s largest companies including Netflix, Spotify, and major government infrastructures.
The outage reignited conversations about Big Tech’s overwhelming influence, with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeting:
“If a company can break the entire internet, they are too big. Period. It’s time to break up Big Tech.”
During the outage, over 16 million users filed reports on Downdetector, and more than 2,000 companies were affected from startups to multinational brands. Many users mistakenly blamed telecom providers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, though it was later confirmed the fault lay entirely within AWS.
While services have since stabilized, the incident has left a lasting reminder of how deeply the world depends on a single company to keep the internet running.
