Microsoft Faces Global Outage Disrupting Key Services

Microsoft faced a significant global outage beginning around midday on November 12, disrupting access to Outlook, Teams, Copilot, and other Microsoft 365 services. This outage affected businesses, government institutions, and schools across multiple countries, leaving users unable to access email accounts and use cloud-based services.

Microsoft identified problems with server availability and an overwhelmed process on the affected servers. Services relying on Exchange Online were particularly impacted.

The disruption also affected email support services for Indian airlines IndiGo and Akasa Air, and financial firms in Taiwan. Microsoft initially attributed the outage to elevated infrastructure loads but later clarified that it was due to a large number of servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable.

Some servers were restored, but the company noted that recovery measures had not been fully effective. Microsoft stated there was no evidence of malicious activity, and Australian Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke confirmed the company did not believe a cyberattack was involved.