Another huge blackout.

AWS OUTAGE

Amazon.com cloud service returned to normal operations on Monday afternoon, the company said, after an internet outage that caused global turmoil among thousands of sites, including some of the web’s most popular apps like Snapchat and Reddit.

AWS hosts applications and computer processes for companies across the world, and the disruption knocked workers from London to Tokyo offline, and halted others from conducting normal everyday tasks like paying for goods and services.

More than 2,000 companies worldwide were affected, according to Downdetector, a site that monitors internet outages, with 8.1 million reports of problems from users – including 1.9 million reports in the U.S, 1 million in the U.K, and 418,000 in Australia.

The problems stemmed from what is known as the Domain Name System, or DNS, which prevented applications from finding the correct address for the AWS core – DynamoDB API – a database relied upon to store user information.

It was at least the third time in five years that AWS’s northern Virginia cluster, known as US-EAST-1, contributed to a major internet meltdown. Amazon did not address a request for more clarity about why that particular data centre keeps being impacted.

It was the largest internet disruption since last year’s CrowdStrike malfunction hobbled technology systems in hospitals, banks and airports, highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies.

Experts said the outage underlined the dangers of the internet’s reliance on a small number of tech companies, with Amazon, Microsoft and Google playing a key role in the cloud market.

“We urgently need diversification in cloud computing,” Dr Corinne Cath-Speth, the Head of Digital at human rights organisation Article 19, said.

“The infrastructure underpinning democratic discourse, independent journalism and secure communications cannot be dependent on a handful of companies.”

Michael Simms from MMAMV Australia said it best the other day, your freedom and livelihood shouldn’t have to rely on a wif-fi connection.

However, the world continues to shift further to centralised digital control – and along with it, come the dangers associated with entrusting corporations with such dynamics.

More specifically, this outage highlights just how dangerous the recent move by Australia’s Commonwealth Bank is in moving their entire core system to AWS.

Just days after our bank made the announcement, the AWS outage cripples half of the entire other side of the world – raising concerns about what may happen to customers.  

COMMBANK DANGERS

This week, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) completed the migration of its entire data platform and core banking system to Amazon Web Services, marking one of the largest financial cloud transitions undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere.

Commonwealth Bank moves entire core system to Amazon Cloud service
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The 18-month project, which replaced CBA’s mainframe infrastructure, makes it the first of Australia’s major retail banks to fully migrate its core to the public cloud.

A few days later, this outage happens.

Boy, oh boy.

According to the bank, the migration of its enterprise data platform began in mid-2024 and involved transferring more than 61,000 data pipelines to AWS in partnership with HCLTech – another third-party offshore tech company.

The project is described as “one of CBA’s most significant technology transformations”.

When writing news on the development, I warned of the vulnerability of the digital world.

Now this happens?

Hate to say, “I told you so”.

This is not the first occurrence, either. Time again, we see outages and hacks that leave the world at a standstill – with sensitive data going missing, or entire systems going out.

Mass cyber outage highlights the dangers of digital globalisation
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I also warned of potential access by foreign governments, particularly the U.S, when relying on cloud services like the one offered by Amazon (and adopted by Commbank).

For instance, there is major discussion surrounding the CLOUD Act, which is a 2018 U.S law that requires American cloud services to produce, under subpoena, data held by them directly to United States authorities.

Now, traditionally, companies and individuals who have had their data handed over to U.S authorities can go through an appeals process to retain their information.

Australia’s peak legal body, the Law Council, says that under current arrangements, the appeal avenues under the CLOUD Act “would not have application” in Australia.

The fragile nature of our digital societies has again been exposed with this mass digital outage, and again, those who champion for a return to the ‘old ways’ are validated.

This is the threat that corporatisation is having on the world, particularly in a digital economy, and more resistance to the mass virtual shift needs to be heard.

If I was with Commonwealth Bank, I would seriously reconsider my relationship as an ongoing customer with them, just for entrusting a foreign entity with their core system.

From U.S government access, to the threat of proven outage threats via AWS, the future doesn’t seem too bright for Commonwealth Bank.

How long will it be before other Australian banks follow suit?

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