Microsoft apologises after global outage hits 430 million users

Microsoft issued an official apology to its customers in over 70 countries following a widespread technical outage that disrupted its main digital services from Thursday until Friday afternoon. The company expressed deep regret for impacting over 430 million people worldwide who use its affected products.

The outage hit Outlook email services, the Teams communication platform, and the Copilot artificial intelligence tool. Microsoft explained that services generally began recovering by Friday afternoon, roughly 24 hours after the technical problems emerged, with email flow gradually returning to normal levels.

The American company confirmed that the glitch resulted from a step to upgrade network capacity, stressing that the outage had no connection to cyberattacks or artificial intelligence systems. Nevertheless, the technical disruption caused widespread confusion across business operations, government services, and vital institutions in several countries.

The impact of the outage reached prominent institutions, including the Japanese government, the Supreme Court of the Philippines, and the Australian Intelligence Agency, alongside rail networks, hospitals, and courts in North America. In the United Kingdom, National Health Service staff were affected, while local authorities announced emergency services and the transport sector remained unaffected.

In Canada, the outage impacted hospital operations and rail passengers, coinciding with partial service disruptions at courts and government offices in the United States before work gradually resumed. Cybersecurity experts and consultants described the incident as a stark reminder of the risks of over-relying on a small number of major technology companies.

What do these terms mean?

Network Capacity Upgrade: The process of expanding a network's data transfer capabilities to support higher digital traffic and a larger number of users at faster speeds.

Artificial Intelligence: Software technologies that enable computer systems to emulate human cognitive functions and execute complex tasks such as analysis, forecasting, and content creation.

Cyberattacks: Deliberate and unauthorized attempts to breach computer systems or networks to disable them, steal data, or cause damage.