A global issue with Microsoft’s servers has left millions unable to access services, including Outlook email and the Teams meeting platform. The disruption has persisted for over 12 hours, impacting the daily operations of banks, government agencies, and courts across multiple countries. Microsoft has reported “partial success” in addressing the issue and has confirmed that it is not the result of a cyberattack. This information was reported by CNN and the BBC.
According to DownDetector, a website that tracks service outages, reports of the disruption spread across 74 countries and regions within about an hour. By 6:00 PM on Thursday, approximately 140,000 complaints regarding Outlook had been filed—a figure 2,000 times higher than the typical volume. Microsoft’s website notes that more than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, and over 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies utilize its Copilot AI chatbot.
The outage has caused significant disruptions to public and private services in countries including the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, and the United Kingdom. In several U.S. cities, government agencies reported interruptions to email services and advised residents to use the telephone for urgent matters. In Hong Kong’s financial hubs, employees at firms such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs reported that their work had been disrupted. Some airlines have also faced operational challenges. Additionally, AI services such as those from OpenAI and Anthropic have experienced issues.
On Friday morning, Microsoft stated that it had achieved partial success in resolving the problem. The company is currently reviewing server performance and verifying the effectiveness of the measures taken. Following traffic optimization, positive results have been observed in terms of server stability and capacity. A Microsoft executive stated that the outage was not caused by a security flaw. In a previous update, the company explained that some servers suddenly stopped functioning, placing an excessive load on the remaining ones—the root cause of the issue.
This disruption has prompted European nations to consider enhancing their own technological capabilities. Europe remains heavily dependent on major U.S. technology companies. Neil Shearing, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that the entire internet infrastructure in Europe is built by U.S. firms, with no significant competitors.
Jake Moore, an advisor at the cybersecurity firm ESET, explained that when some servers fail, the resulting extra burden on the remaining servers slows down the entire system. Technology journalist Jacob Ward remarked that this serves as a stark illustration of just how dependent we are on cloud systems—and how vulnerable that makes us.
