From RFI · · 2m
Microsoft outage cuts off millions from Outlook
Microsoft's Outlook email service went down across 74 countries Thursday, disrupting businesses, governments and public services for more than half a day.
In brief
Microsoft's Outlook email service went down across 74 countries Thursday, disrupting businesses, governments and public services for more than half a day. A global Microsoft outage knocked Outlook offline for millions across 74 countries Thursday, affecting rail operators, hospitals, stock markets and government…
Outlook goes down worldwide
Microsoft's Outlook email service went down Thursday evening, cutting off millions of users across 74 countries and territories from their email.
Other services also affected
Teams and Copilot were also hit by the outage as Microsoft struggled to fix server problems affecting its infrastructure.
Microsoft rules out attack
Microsoft said the outage was caused by heavy load on its infrastructure rather than by malicious activity.
Gradual recovery begins
On Friday, Microsoft said it had made additional progress restoring services, with traffic gradually returning across parts of affected infrastructure.
“We're seeing improvements in key scenarios, including mailbox access and delayed email processing, though some intermittent issues may continue.”
Rail operators hit
Rail operators in Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom warned passengers that train tickets sent by email might be temporarily inaccessible.
NHS emergency calls disrupted
In the UK, National Health Service staff handling emergency calls were unable to refer patient details normally, creating a massive backlog.
“are unable to refer patient details in the normal way, which is creating a massive backlog and has the potential for chaos”
Stock market and local government affected
Euronext advised listed companies to use telephone to communicate corporate information. In France, Aulnay-sous-Bois town hall reported its email system was down.
AI platforms also disrupted
In the United States, OpenAI and Anthropic both reported problems connecting to Microsoft 365 tools, showing how outages spread through interconnected systems.
Fragility of interconnected world
Christophe Aulnette, former president of Microsoft France, said the outage highlights how central points of vulnerability in an interconnected world can affect the entire planet.
“An interconnected world creates points of vulnerability in central locations that can affect the entire planet.”
Potential for sophisticated attacks
Aulnette said the outage potentially shows that with artificial intelligence, new sophisticated attacks can be developed, though he had no information about a cyberattack on Outlook.
What to remember
A global Microsoft outage knocked Outlook offline for millions across 74 countries Thursday, affecting rail operators, hospitals, stock markets and government agencies before the company blamed heavy infrastructure load.
