From WIRED · Andrew Couts · · 1m 20s
Microsoft 365 returns after 24-hour global outage
A technical issue during a network upgrade knocked out email, Teams and other services across 70 countries, disrupting governments, airlines and hospitals worldwide.
In brief
A technical issue during a network upgrade knocked out email, Teams and other services across 70 countries, disrupting governments, airlines and hospitals worldwide. Microsoft 365 services came back online after a 24-hour outage caused by a network capacity upgrade, affecting governments, airlines and hospitals across…
Microsoft 365 knocked offline
Microsoft 365 services shut down for businesses and governments around the world. Users reported Outlook outages just after 12 pm ET on Thursday. The disruption quickly spread to impact more than 70 countries.
Not a cyberattack or AI problem
Microsoft ruled out a cyberattack and said AI or AI agents played no role. The company stated the outage was caused by a technical issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a…
“This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI/agents.”
Widespread disruption to critical services
Governments from Japan to the United States reported disruptions. Airlines had problems communicating with customers. Law enforcement and emergency services ground to a halt. Hospitals reported widespread interruptions to their operations.
Email backlog and recovery risks
Microsoft increased email queue time to 48 hours to ensure messages sent during the outage get delivered. Users will likely receive a flood of notifications as subsystems come back online, warns independent researcher Jonathan Leitschuh.
“You're probably going to get a lot of notifications when things come back.”
What it means
Microsoft 365 services came back online after a 24-hour outage caused by a network capacity upgrade, affecting governments, airlines and hospitals across 70 countries.
