Microsoft says it has had only “marginal success” in restoring its most widely used workplace services, more than 12 hours after a global outage knocked out Outlook and disrupted Teams and Copilot for users in 74 countries.
asserted
outage → say → countries
In a statement on its service health page early on Friday, the company said it was monitoring activity across regions to assess server status and find ways to improve capacity.
asserted
it → say → capacity
“This includes reviewing server performance and confirming that developed patches have been applied and working as intended after infrastructure reboots are completed,” it said.
asserted
it → include → performance
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3IBM’s biggest division ends most US foreign worker sponsorships
- list 2 of 3Ireland fears undersea cables face growing threat from ‘malign actors’
- list 3 of 3Microsoft working ‘urgently’ to fix outages
asserted
cables → end → outages
Here is what we know about the outage, what caused it and when services might return.
uncertain
services → know → it
What happened?
asserted
What → happen → ?
Problems with Microsoft products began at about 16:00 GMT on Thursday, when users began reporting that they could not access Outlook, its email platform.
uncertain
they → begin → Outlook
Within about an hour, the outage tracker Downdetector had logged reports from 74 countries and territories.
asserted
tracker → log → countries
Microsoft first said it was investigating problems in the Americas, but later confirmed that users in any region could be affected.
uncertain
users → say → region
It said the affected infrastructure was experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which was likely contributing to the connectivity errors.
asserted
which → say → errors
The company later said a number of servers had become unexpectedly unavailable, and that the elevated load had not been caused by an increase in traffic.
asserted
load → say → traffic
The disruption dragged on through the US working day and into the night.
asserted
disruption → drag → night
By Friday morning in Europe, it had still not been resolved, and servers Microsoft had restored were failing again.
asserted
Microsoft → resolve → Europe
“I don’t think it’s unprecedented.
asserted
it → think → ?
I mean, the scale is impressive,” Rupert Goodwins, a technology analyst and journalist, told Al Jazeera “It’s very embarrassing for Microsoft and really, really annoying for the rest of us.
asserted
It → mean → us
How many people are affected?
asserted
people → affect → ?
Microsoft has not confirmed the number of users who have been affected.
asserted
who → confirm → users
Data from Downdetector, through which users can report problems with online services, gives a partial picture, however.
asserted
users → report → picture
At about 07:00 GMT on Friday, it had received at least 43,000 reports of problems with Outlook from users in 72 countries.
asserted
it → receive → countries
The true number is likely far higher, since the figure only counts people who visit the site to report an issue.
asserted
who → count → issue
“There’s about 430 million people who use Microsoft services,” said Walter Pasquarelli, an affiliate researcher at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and an AI specialist.
asserted
Pasquarelli → ’ → Cambridge
“What we do know so far is that this is first and foremost a communication risk.”
asserted
this → know → What
Government systems in Singapore and Japan have been disrupted, as have communications at the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
asserted
communications → disrupt → Philippines
In Australia, the country’s spy agency and federal police were among the organisations hit.
asserted
agency → hit → organisations
Which Microsoft services have been affected?
asserted
services → affect → ?
Outlook has been hit hardest.
asserted
Outlook → hit → ?
Users have reported being unable to open their mailboxes via the web, the app or through mobile devices, and many emails which do go through have arrived late.
asserted
which → report → devices
Other services have been partly disrupted.
asserted
services → disrupt → ?
The disruption has spread beyond Microsoft’s own products, hitting integrations which other companies, including the AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, rely on.
asserted
companies → spread → firms
“For the most part, we don’t really think about it too much, a little bit like our health, that we kind of take these tools for granted until they’re suddenly down or they’re not there,” Pasquarelli said.
asserted
Pasquarelli → think → tools
What caused the Microsoft outage?
asserted
What → cause → outage
Microsoft has not published a root cause but said the outage was not the result of a cyberattack.
asserted
outage → publish → cyberattack
On Friday, it was rolling back a network change, but did not say if that change was to blame for the problems.
“We will continue to share more information as soon as we have it, and for now I can confirm that there is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity,” Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Copilot, Agents and Platform, said in a post on X late on Thursday.
asserted
Lamanna → roll → Thursday
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft had also told him it did not believe it was dealing with a cyberattack.
asserted
it → say → cyberattack
“They believe they are dealing in some ways similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry,” Burke told a news conference in Sydney.
asserted
Burke → believe → Sydney
Goodwins said elevated load usually comes from one of two places.
asserted
load → say → places
“Either there’s an external attack and some aggressor is trying to put lots and lots of artificial loads on the system to break it,” he said.
asserted
he → ’ → it
“Microsoft says that hasn’t happened, and I believe them because there are ways to mitigate that.”
asserted
I → say → that
The other common cause, he said, is a faulty update to internal systems.
asserted
he → say → systems
“The update gets sent out over the administration network to all these servers, but there’s a mistake, and instead of it fixing things, it makes them reset or stop being able to talk to each other,” he said.
asserted
he → send → other
…and 56 more, not listed.
The Aporia
