Cybersecurity Expert Suggests Staying Alert After Worldwide Internet Issues

Popular Apps Around the World Faced Downtime Today

After a big internet hiccup made headlines this morning, a cybersecurity expert is telling everyone to 'stay on their toes'.

On October 20, lots of people dealt with major issues as some of their go-to apps and services were down.

Services like Amazon Web Services, Snapchat, Canva, Duolingo, and Ring had outages, and platforms such as Roblox, Clash Royale, Life360, My Fitness Pal, Xero, Amazon Music, Prime Video, Clash of Clans, Fortnite, Wordle, Coinbase, HMRC, Vodafone, PlayStation, and Pokémon Go were reportedly affected.

Even though these apps and companies aren't usually linked, it looks like the issues stem from Amazon Web Services.

Tech teams jumped in right away and are busy both fixing the problem and figuring out what caused it.

Charlotte Wilson, Head of Enterprise at the cybersecurity company CheckPoint, has given a heads-up in light of the global internet glitch.

The internet outage has impacted services globally

According to Sky News, she mentioned: "A local problem can quickly impact the whole world. We've made things convenient with shared systems, but staying strong still depends on people and processes."

The tech expert also recommended keeping backups of important files and information, highlighting the need to stay alert.

She added: "Watch out for scams or phishing attempts—especially if banking sites aren't working—and never click on links or share info you don't trust."

The cybersecurity leader gave some advice to businesses during these uncertain times.

"Test your backup systems, train your teams, and be ready for downtime before it happens," Wilson advised.

"When companies rush to get things back online, both systems and staff get overloaded, giving attackers a chance."

The expert says it's super important to 'stay alert'

"Get ready for more fake 'refund' or 'discount' offers, phishing emails, and scam links pretending to fix the issue. The internet might be worldwide, but staying strong starts with what each of us does locally."

Amazon Web Services is seeing 'recovery across most of the affected AWS Services', blaming the issues on its data center in Northern Virginia.

"We're working hard to fix everything and will keep you posted as we learn more," the company said.

Besides affecting apps like Snapchat and Duolingo, US media reports that airlines are also feeling the impact of the outage.

The New York Times notes that long check-in lines have been spotted at LaGuardia airport because some reservations aren't showing up in booking systems.