If you found yourself experiencing problems with your online communications provider today, you’re not the only one. Starting around 9 am EST this morning, working from home became very difficult for many. Users of popular communication services like Slack and Zoom began noticing various service issues and the VPNOverview.com team was no exception.
When we started having connection issues and service request issues, we decided to review Downdetector, a site that tracks service outages, to research the cause. That is when we confirmed that multiple large services were experiencing service problems, all seemingly connected to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Several Large Companies Experience Service Outages
In addition to Slack and Zoom, we noticed several large companies with service issues. These companies include AWS, the programming platform GitHub and other large, tech corporations such as Google, Spectrum, and Verizon. We also see a similar peak of reported outages with Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and other communication services from the same time.
Single Point of Failure?
Many of these services rely on a few central internet hubs or hosting giants (such as AWS) to serve large volumes of users. A persistent technical problem or a targeted attack on these core services can therefore disrupt the operation of many other services in one fell swoop. The rising line of complaints about AWS seems to be the culprit in this case.
To paint a picture, AWS controls more than 30% of the global web hosting market, earning over $40 billion a year. This means that many of the world’s largest websites rely on AWS’s services. Think of communication services such as Slack, but also business websites and the government infrastructure of many countries fall under the umbrella of AWS.
In addition, Reddit, Netflix, and many more of your favorite online platforms and websites also run into problems when something goes wrong at AWS. Considering Amazon’s millions of customers with AWS, problems are noticeable almost immediately.
DDOS or Technical Problem?
At the time of writing, the cause of the outage is still undetermined, but services appear to be coming back online.
“We’re seeing signs of improvement. Please try reloading Slack, and if not a cache reset. We’re still monitoring the situation. We’ll confirm once this issue is fully resolved.” Slack Tweeted shortly after noon EST.
The cause of the failure is still a matter of speculation. It could have been anything from a simple technical failure to an attack by cybercriminals who want to shut things down in a targeted manner. Whether it was a brute force attack, a trojan virus, or just some programming error, this outage has caused this Two’s Day (2/22/22) to be one to remember, but not necessarily in a good way.
