Amazon Web Services Outage Disrupts Major Online Platforms

A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday disabled numerous platforms—including Amazon, Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT, Epic Games Store, Epic Online Services, Perplexity, Airtable, Canva, Zapier, and the McDonald’s app—for several hours. AWS first reported issues in the US-EAST-1 Region at 3:11AM ET, traced to DNS resolution failures originating in the EC2 internal network. Partial recovery began around 6:35AM ET, with full restoration confirmed at 6:01PM ET. Alexa became unresponsive, alarms failed, and users experienced outages in Ring security camera recordings.

Fortnite, Epic Games Store, and Perplexity resumed operations approximately four hours after the initial disruption. The incident disrupted both enterprise services and consumer routines. Historical parallels include similar AWS outages in the same region in 2020, 2021, and 2023. Every affected service relied on US-EAST-1 endpoints. The failure revealed continued vulnerability in cloud-dependent ecosystems and widespread dependency on AWS infrastructure for real-time digital operations and basic functionality across sectors.

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Banks End Client Relationships Without Explanation Amid Rising Risk Controls

RBC severed ties with Tomas Nassab after decades, triggering over 100 Canadians to report abrupt, unexplained “debanking” notices from major banks. Carol Khan, 73, lost BMO access with two weeks’ notice, scrambling to redirect pension deposits; Rob Palfrey received a similar letter citing vague “risk appetite” criteria. BMO later extended Khan’s deadline; Palfrey suspects profitability bias. Scotiabank accepted Khan post-BMO. TD Bank’s billion-dollar anti-money laundering fine looms large, as banks tighten surveillance on crypto transactions, foreign funds, and casino spending.

University of Toronto finance professor Andreas Park explains algorithmic risk models flag customers, often without recourse. Banks aren’t legally required to explain closures; most account agreements permit silent terminations. The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) logged 419 cases since 2019, 94 in 2024 alone—mostly chequing, savings, and credit card accounts. Mark Wright of OBSI says banks usually give 30-day notice but rarely offer reasons, and compensation is only recommended if closure lacks fair process.

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Freedom Under Fire? New Bills, New Problems

Last week in Montreal, CBP’s (and AxisOfEasy podcast co-host) Joey Temprile and easyDNS CEO Mark Jeftovic had a fireside chat about The State of Canadian Anti-Privacy & Surveillance Legislation 2025.

Originally intended to be about the massive overreach in Bill C-2 (The Strong Borders Act) two other bills must also be considered: Bill C-8, the new Cyber-Security Bill and C-9, the Online Hate Bill.

Watch here: https://axisofeasy.com/freespeech/the-state-of-canadian-anti-privacy-surveillance-legislation-2025/

Spyware Warning to Former Trenchant Developer Raises Questions Over Surveillance Industry Practices

Jay Gibson (pseudonym), a former iOS zero-day exploit developer at Trenchant—an L3Harris-owned surveillance firm formed by merging Azimuth and Linchpin Labs—was alerted on March 5 by Apple to a mercenary spyware attack on his personal iPhone. Gibson, who had no Chrome exploit access, suspects he was scapegoated for a leak of Chrome zero-days. A month earlier, he was summoned to Trenchant’s London office under false pretenses, then suspended by general manager Peter “Doogie” Williams for alleged dual employment.

His devices were confiscated and later, without explanation of findings, he was fired and pressured to sign a settlement. Forensics revealed no infection, though incomplete analysis leaves attribution unresolved. Multiple former colleagues corroborated the events. Gibson is among several exploit developers recently notified by Apple. Citizen Lab, Amnesty International, and others have documented growing misuse of such spyware, typically developed for state use, against broader targets including journalists and dissidents. Apple declined comment.

More via:  TechCrunch

WhatsApp Wins Landmark Ruling Against NSO Group Over Pegasus Spyware

After a six-year legal battle, U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton issued a final ruling against NSO Group, permanently banning it from using, reverse-engineering, or creating accounts on WhatsApp, and ordering destruction of all WhatsApp source code in its possession. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, sued NSO in 2019 after the spyware firm exploited CVE-2019-3568—a zero-day buffer overflow vulnerability in WhatsApp’s RTCP packet handling—to install Pegasus spyware on 1,400 devices via missed call injection.

Victims included journalists, activists, diplomats, political candidates, and government officials. Meta’s October 2019 lawsuit led to a 2024 jury verdict finding NSO liable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California CDAFA, and for breach of contract. Originally ordered to pay $167M in punitive and $444K in compensatory damages, NSO’s penalty was reduced to $4M. Judge Hamilton affirmed the injunction, citing “irreparable injury.” Citizen Lab’s John Scott-Railton and WhatsApp head Will Cathcart applauded the precedent-setting outcome.

More via: Dark Reading