Image Credit: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Everything from your favorite apps to major banking services stumbled on October 20, 2025, after an unexpected failure at Amazon Web Services. More than 4 million user-reported disruptions and a warning from threat-intelligence veteran Rafe Pilling - "any issue can cause a major upset" - pointed to the scale of the breakdown. With AWS now tracking the fallout and restoring services, here's a close-up look at what failed, why, and how the internet is getting back on its feet.