Microsoft Outage Disrupts Outlook, Teams And Copilot Across Several Countries

Microsoft is facing widespread service disruptions after technical problems affected key platforms, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams and Copilot, leaving thousands of users unable to access services.

The disruption continued into Friday’s business hours in the Asia-Pacific region after initially affecting a large number of users in the United States.

Government institutions in Australia, Japan and the US were among those affected, alongside businesses and technology companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic.

In its latest update, Microsoft said it had made changes to the affected servers in an effort to restore services. However, the adjustments failed to bring about a lasting recovery, although some regions experienced partial improvements.

The company said it was assessing further measures to strengthen the stability of its infrastructure.

Outage monitoring platform Downdetector recorded more than 18,000 reports of Outlook problems in the US by 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday. At the height of the disruption, reports exceeded 130,000 around 1 p.m. the same day.

The outage had lasted approximately 12 hours, with users in India, Australia and Japan also reporting difficulties accessing Microsoft services.

Microsoft explained that the problems mainly affected services relying on Exchange Online, its cloud-based email and messaging platform. Other Microsoft 365 features that did not depend on Exchange Online continued operating.

The company also said there was no indication that a cyberattack had caused the disruption.

GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS AFFECTED

Australian Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft had indicated that the incident was not the result of a cyberattack.

Burke suggested that the problem could be linked to a faulty system update, drawing comparisons with the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, which caused widespread disruptions across hospitals, banks, airports and other critical services.

He said the impact of the Microsoft outage was largely being felt through email systems.

Australia’s intelligence agency and federal police were among the institutions affected.

In the United States, the House of Representatives confirmed that its users had experienced disruptions, with technical teams working alongside Microsoft to resolve the problem.

Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki also confirmed that government information systems had been affected.

BUSINESSES COUNT THE COST

The disruption extended beyond government departments, affecting several businesses and technology companies.

OpenAI and Anthropic reported problems with their Microsoft connectors, while Indian airlines IndiGo and Akasa Air experienced disruptions to their email support services.

Financial institutions in Taiwan, including securities firms, life insurers and investment trust companies, also reported difficulties.

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that one company was forced to cancel a previously scheduled bond repurchase transaction because of the disruption.

Market analyst Josh Gilbert of trading platform eToro said investors were unlikely to react strongly to the incident immediately, given how deeply businesses depend on Microsoft’s systems.

However, he warned that repeated service interruptions could gradually damage confidence in the company.

He said organisations could begin reconsidering their dependence on a single technology provider if reliability problems continued.

Microsoft has experienced several service disruptions in recent months, including an incident involving its 365 services in January and another in October last year.

Last month, problems affecting its Azure cloud platform also disrupted productivity services and businesses across different industries.

The latest incident has also affected corporate operations, with electric truck manufacturer Workhorse Group postponing the release of its third-quarter financial results from November 12 to November 16, citing business disruptions caused by the global Microsoft outage.