AWS experienced a **16-hour global outage on October 20**, caused by **DNS resolution issues** in its US-East-1 region, disrupting hundreds of critical online services worldwide. Affected platforms included **Zoom, Canva, banks, airlines, Roblox, Fortnite, Snapchat, and Reddit**, with thousands of users in Singapore reporting disruptions via Downdetector. The outage stemmed from a **chain of failures**: initial DNS problems led to impairments in AWS’s internal subsystem monitoring network load balancers, followed by a **backlog of internet traffic requests**, prolonging restoration. The incident mirrored the severity of a **coordinated cyber attack**, exposing vulnerabilities in cloud resilience and overreliance on legacy technologies like DNS. While AWS confirmed **increased error rates and latencies**, the root cause (hardware error, misconfiguration, or human error) remains undisclosed. The outage underscored risks to **global digital infrastructure**, prompting regulatory responses like Singapore’s upcoming **Digital Infrastructure Act** to enforce stricter security and resilience standards for cloud providers. The economic and operational ripple effects highlighted the **concentrated risk** of single-point failures in cloud services, disrupting businesses, financial transactions, and daily digital activities for millions.
TPRM report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/amazon-web-services
"id": "ama0232202102125",
"linkid": "amazon-web-services",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "10/2025",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization’s existence"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': 'Hundreds of services globally '
'(e.g., Zoom, Canva, Roblox, '
'Fortnite, Snapchat, Reddit, '
'banks, airlines)',
'industry': 'Technology/Cloud Computing',
'location': 'Global (primary impact in US-East-1 '
'region)',
'name': 'Amazon Web Services (AWS)',
'size': "World's largest cloud provider",
'type': 'Cloud Service Provider'},
{'industry': 'Communication/Video Conferencing',
'location': 'Global (reported disruptions in '
'Singapore)',
'name': 'Zoom',
'type': 'Software Company'},
{'industry': 'Graphic Design',
'location': 'Global (reported disruptions in '
'Singapore)',
'name': 'Canva',
'type': 'Software Company'},
{'industry': 'Entertainment/Gaming',
'location': 'Global',
'name': 'Roblox',
'type': 'Gaming Platform'},
{'industry': 'Entertainment/Gaming',
'location': 'Global',
'name': 'Fortnite (Epic Games)',
'type': 'Gaming Company'},
{'industry': 'Technology/Social Media',
'location': 'Global',
'name': 'Snapchat (Snap Inc.)',
'type': 'Social Media Platform'},
{'industry': 'Technology/Social Media',
'location': 'Global',
'name': 'Reddit',
'type': 'Social Media Platform'},
{'industry': ['Banking', 'Travel'],
'location': 'Global (including overseas from '
'Singapore)',
'name': 'Unspecified Banks and Airlines',
'type': ['Financial Institutions', 'Aviation']}],
'customer_advisories': 'AWS acknowledged service disruptions via status page; '
'no specific customer advisories mentioned.',
'date_detected': '2024-10-20T09:00:00Z',
'date_publicly_disclosed': '2024-10-20',
'date_resolved': '2024-10-21T01:00:00Z',
'description': 'Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a 16-hour global outage '
'on October 20, 2024, attributed to DNS resolution issues in '
'the US-East-1 region. The outage disrupted hundreds of online '
'services globally, including Zoom, Canva, Roblox, Fortnite, '
'Snapchat, Reddit, and banking/airline services. The incident '
'was resolved after addressing DNS issues, internal subsystem '
'impairments (network load balancer health monitoring), and a '
'backlog of internet traffic requests. AWS has not yet '
'disclosed the root cause (e.g., hardware error, '
'misconfiguration, human error, or cyber attack), but experts '
'likened its impact to a coordinated cyber attack due to its '
'scale and reliance on legacy technologies like DNS.',
'impact': {'brand_reputation_impact': 'Highlighted overreliance on AWS and '
'legacy DNS technologies; compared to '
'CrowdStrike (July 2024) and Equinix '
'(October 2023) outages',
'customer_complaints': 'Thousands of reports on Downdetector '
'(Singapore and globally)',
'downtime': '16 hours (from ~2024-10-20T09:00:00Z to '
'~2024-10-21T01:00:00Z)',
'operational_impact': 'Severe disruption to global online services '
'(e.g., banking, airlines, gaming, social '
'media, productivity tools)',
'systems_affected': ['DNS infrastructure',
'Network load balancers',
'Multiple AWS services in US-East-1']},
'investigation_status': 'Ongoing (AWS to release detailed post-event summary; '
'no timeline provided)',
'lessons_learned': ['Overreliance on legacy technologies (e.g., DNS) poses '
'systemic risks in cloud-era demands.',
'Highly concentrated risk in single providers (e.g., AWS) '
'can disrupt global operations akin to cyber attacks.',
'Need for fortified cloud resilience and redundancy to '
'mitigate ripple effects on digital economies.',
"Government intervention (e.g., Singapore's Digital "
'Infrastructure Act) may be necessary to enforce higher '
'security/resilience standards.'],
'post_incident_analysis': {'corrective_actions': "Pending AWS's detailed "
'summary (known actions: DNS '
'resolution fixes, load '
'balancer subsystem repairs, '
'traffic backlog clearance)',
'root_causes': "Pending AWS's detailed summary "
'(potential causes: hardware error, '
'misconfiguration, human error, or '
'unforeseen DNS subsystem '
'failures)'},
'recommendations': ['Modernize DNS and critical infrastructure to meet '
'cloud-era demands.',
'Implement redundancy and failover mechanisms for core '
'services like DNS and load balancers.',
'Enhance transparency in post-incident disclosures (e.g., '
'timely root cause analysis).',
'Diversify cloud dependencies to reduce single points of '
'failure.',
'Strengthen collaboration between cloud providers and '
'regulators to improve resilience standards.'],
'references': [{'source': 'The Straits Times (ST)'},
{'source': 'Downdetector', 'url': 'https://downdetector.com'},
{'source': 'AWS Status Page',
'url': 'https://status.aws.amazon.com'},
{'source': 'Keeper Security (Darren Guccione, CEO)'},
{'source': 'Forrester (Brent Ellis, Principal Analyst)'}],
'regulatory_compliance': {'regulatory_notifications': "Singapore's upcoming "
'Digital Infrastructure '
'Act (to be tabled in '
'Parliament) aims to '
'enhance accountability '
'for cloud providers '
'and data centers '
'post-incident'},
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Public acknowledgment via AWS status '
'website; spokeswoman provided updates '
'to media (no detailed timeline for '
'post-event summary)',
'containment_measures': ['Resolved DNS resolution issues',
'Addressed impairments in internal '
'subsystem for network load balancer '
'health monitoring'],
'incident_response_plan_activated': 'Yes (AWS acknowledged '
'increased error rates and '
'latencies; detailed '
'post-event summary pending)',
'recovery_measures': 'Full service restoration after ~16 hours',
'remediation_measures': ['Cleared backlog of internet traffic '
'requests',
'Restored services to normal '
'operations']},
'title': 'AWS Global Outage Due to DNS Resolution Issues (October 20, 2024)',
'type': ['Service Disruption', 'Outage']}