Microsoft says attempts to fix global outage not going 'as expected' - BBC

Microsoft Says Attempts to Fix Global Outage Not Going 'As Expected'

Microsoft has acknowledged that its ongoing efforts to resolve a massive global technology outage are not progressing as anticipated. The disruption, which began on Thursday and has stretched across at least 10 hours, has impacted tens of thousands of users across 74 countries.

Widely used services including Microsoft 365 apps, Outlook, Teams, and the AI chatbot Copilot have suffered severe connectivity problems. Monitoring website Downdetector reported that global problems with Outlook peaked at nearly 140,000 reports around 18:00 GMT on Thursday.

Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna confirmed that the global disruption was not caused by a cyber-security incident or hacking activity, instead attributing the issue to an "elevated load" and unexpected server unavailability across multiple regions. Despite initial signs of positive results in restarting systems, the company stated that recovery efforts are encountering setbacks.

The widespread technical failure has disrupted operations for banks, educational institutions, and government services globally, including agencies in Singapore and Australia, while prompting warnings from authorities regarding opportunistic phishing scams and fake IT support offers.