More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 applications
Global turmoil has been triggered by the Microsoft blackout, leaving millions of users unable to access their emails, chats, and video conferences. The outage impacted core applications such as Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and Copilot, while disruptions were also recorded in artificial intelligence services operated by OpenAI and Anthropic. The outage began at approximately 20:00 Greek time on Thursday, November 12, and has persisted for more than 18 hours, causing severe malfunctions across businesses, government agencies, hospitals, police departments, and banks worldwide. The scale of the problem is reflected in data from the Downdetector website, which recorded nearly 130,000 problem reports within a short timeframe, with incidents spanning 74 countries. In a separate tracking log, reports of Outlook issues reached 140,000. The true number of affected users is estimated to be significantly higher, as the platform relies on user-submitted reports. According to Microsoft data, more than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 applications, highlighting the immense extent of the global economy's dependence on this specific digital infrastructure.
Disruptions even on ChatGPT and Anthropic
The collapse was not confined to Microsoft services, as the ripple effects extended to other major technology companies.OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, announced that it is investigating an issue affecting its connections with Microsoft services. The malfunction caused certain tools to not operate as expected, while new connections to Microsoft infrastructure encountered errors. Similarly, Anthropic disclosed that it identified an issue at an external infrastructure provider, which impacted the connection of its services with Microsoft 365.
Impacts on hospitals, police, and public services
The consequences were particularly severe for organizations relying on Microsoft services for their daily operations. In Britain, medical clinics, pharmacies, police services, and schools faced disruptions, while the National Health Service (NHS) reported widespread interference across information systems and communication networks. The inability to access email systems created bottlenecks in communication between pharmacies and clinics for fulfilling prescriptions, causing significant delays in patient care. Simultaneously, certain health services reported interruptions even during remote therapy sessions. Several police departments in Britain urged citizens not to use online forms to report incidents and to contact authorities by telephone instead. In the US, courts from Los Angeles to Texas warned of potential communication delays, while municipal and government agencies encountered operational hurdles. In Canada, public broadcaster CBC reported that a hospital network in Toronto experienced difficulties with electronic mail, clarifying however that patient care was not affected. Disruptions were also recorded in Japan, where the government's shared information platform was interrupted, as well as in Australia, where public services, courts, and educational institutions notified citizens of malfunctions. In the transport sector, Indian airlines IndiGo and Akasa Air announced issues with email-based customer support services. In Japan, transport company Sagawa Express suspended online booking capabilities for certain services. Even financial markets did not escape unscathed, as portfolio managers faced difficulties confirming access to certain trading platforms via email.
What caused the Microsoft collapse
Microsoft ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack, attributing the incident to severe infrastructure issues and increased server workloads. According to information available thus far, the problem appears linked to a configuration update, which caused certain servers to become overloaded and unexpectedly go offline. The loss of part of the available infrastructure triggered a chain reaction. Traffic that would normally be handled by the offline servers was rerouted to the remaining ones, increasing their load even further and creating fresh connectivity issues. The situation grew even more complicated when company engineers attempted to bring the servers back online. Some of them, according to Microsoft updates, became unresponsive again as soon as heightened internet traffic resumed. To manage the situation, the company throttled traffic toward problematic servers in specific regions, while in certain instances it rolled back previous software settings. Microsoft admitted in an earlier update that recovery efforts had not yielded the expected results, citing limited success from its actions.
The battle to resolve the issue
The company announced that it is observing encouraging signs of stabilization, with the situation improving across Europe and North America. In a more recent update, it stated that it had completed additional recovery actions across parts of its infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region, with gradual restoration of internet traffic and improved access to mailboxes. However, it warned that some users may continue to experience interruptions and instability, as system capacity had not yet returned to normal levels. A large share of the problems reportedly centered on Microsoft Exchange, the email service powering Outlook. Although Teams chats and video conferences had begun recovering, access to emails continued to present difficulties for certain users. Microsoft pledged that following full restoration, it will publish a detailed report on the causes of the incident and the measures it will take to prevent similar malfunctions in the future.
The global economy depends on a handful of digital infrastructures
The incident brings back to the forefront the issue of excessive reliance by businesses, organizations, and state services on major tech companies. Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt warned, speaking to the BBC, that the consequences of such an outage extend far beyond the inability to send and receive emails. As he explained, appointment communications, online purchases, transaction confirmations, and access to accounts and services are all affected. For his part, former big-tech software engineer Gergely Orosz characterized the incident as potentially the most widespread corporate email service outage ever recorded, pointing out how unusual the sheer duration of the crisis is. Mark Gregory, associate professor at RMIT University, underscored the need for companies to thoroughly test system upgrades before deploying them to live networks. Meanwhile, experts point out that businesses relying on Microsoft 365 should maintain alternative solutions, such as Gmail for email and LibreOffice for office applications, so they can continue operating even when a primary provider experiences problems. The Microsoft blackout serves as yet another reminder that the more daily life and the global economy move online, the greater the consequences of a technical failure can be. And this time, a glitch at a single tech giant reached all the way to hospitals, police forces, airlines, and artificial intelligence services.
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