A major global technology outage disrupted Microsoft services on Thursday and Friday, leaving tens of thousands of users across 74 countries unable to access core business tools including Outlook, Teams, and the AI software Copilot.
The widespread technical glitch caused downstream effects internationally. In Australia, public government access points such as Service NSW and Northern Territory services reported disruptions, prompting authorities to advise citizens to delay non-urgent visits or complete tasks online where possible. Some healthcare and medical facilities temporarily reverted to paper-based scripts, though officials emphasized that direct patient care remained unaffected. Major AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, also reported secondary connection issues linked to Microsoft's services.
Microsoft officials and cybersecurity experts stated there was currently no indication that the global disruption stemmed from a cyber-attack. Australian Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Tony Burke noted that officials believe the situation resembles past software update incidents rather than malicious activity. As technical teams continue working to restore full access, Microsoft has cautioned that recovering services may experience intermittent unresponsiveness as traffic re-enters the restored networks.
