Microsoft is battling to fix the widespread outage that has knocked out various platforms, including Outlook, for millions worldwide with the company acknowledging that efforts to restore services were 'not taking as expected.'
asserted
efforts → battle → services
Millions of users around the world began reporting that Outlook was down shortly after 6pm GMT on Thursday.
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Outlook → begin → Thursday
More than 14 hours later, users are still unable to open their inboxes, send emails and access other Microsoft services.
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users → open → services
Governments, police forces and numerous companies around the world have reported problems with their services, but no definitive cause has been given.
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cause → report → services
More than 430 million people use Microsoft's suite of subscription service apps, though the company has not confirmed exactly how many users are affected by the outage.
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users → use → outage
Users have also reported issues with Microsoft's workplace messaging app, Teams, its artificial intelligence assistant, Copilot, as well as other Microsoft 365 services, in at least 74 countries.
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Users → report → countries
Microsoft said on Thursday night that it was attempting to identify 'alternate workstreams that can be applied to increase capacity in the face of sustained traffic management imbalances' in order to address the outage.
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that → say → outage
Earlier, the company said that infrastructure experiencing an 'elevated load across multiple regions' was likely contributing to the connectivity errors.
Microsoft executive vice president, Charles Lamanna, said yesterday on X: 'For now I can confirm that there is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity.'
As Europe wakes up to further disruption this morning, in the UK services including the NHS, police forces and rail companies are all affected.
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services → say → NHS
Microsoft said earlier on Thursday that infrastructure experiencing an 'elevated load across multiple regions' was likely contributing to the massive outage
Millions worldwide have been unable to open and use Microsoft Outlook, as well as other Microsoft services, for most of the day
The outage - which has yet to be fixed - has affected airlines, judicial systems and even national spy agencies around the world.
It comes after a similar, smaller scale outage in 2023 which Microsoft blamed on a 'networking configuration issue'.
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Microsoft → say → issue
In its latest update on Friday morning, Microsoft said it has seen 'marginal success' as it attempts to fix the outage.
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it → say → outage
After applying a patch to Microsoft 365, it said it is seeing 'positive results' and promised to reveal the cause of the outage once the problems are fixed.
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problems → apply → outage
'We're seeing positive results for server stability after applying an upstream authentication/routing configuration component patch to a portion of our infrastructure,' Microsoft said.
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Microsoft → see → infrastructure
The company added that it is continuing to work urgently to fix the issue affecting its services.
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it → add → services
'We'll continue to monitor its progress and are working to expand it to servers supporting active regions coming online.
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We → continue → regions
'As of now (7am GMT), we are not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident.
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that → cause → incident
We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution.
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We → continue → resolution
'Once mitigated, we will provide full details of the root cause, defence-in-depth repair items, and more within a post-incident report.
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we → mitigate → report
'
A map of the world showing how when the Microsoft outage began and when its services were first affected
A chart displaying the level of Outlook issue reports having soared to more than 2,000 times the norm
Pressure continues to mount on Microsoft to restore its services as Europe wakes up for the working day.
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Europe → show → day
Users insisted that was not the case as they continued reporting the outage which landed in the middle of the workday for many.
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which → insist → many
In the UK, businesses and police forces have reported widespread outages, with disruption also expected to NHS services.
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disruption → report → services
Hertfordshire Police said its online form submissions 'may be affected' and urged anyone with 'time-critical' but non-emergency reports to phone 101.
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submissions → say → 101
Many other forces, including Dorset Police, the Met Police and Greater Manchester Police, have also asked the public to phone 101 or 999 in urgent cases.
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forces → include → cases
It's understood that UK intelligence operations are unaffected.
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operations → understand → ?
The UK Government said it had 'robust contingency plans' in place across Whitehall to minimise disruption caused to services after the global Microsoft outage.
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it → say → outage
A Government spokesman said: 'We are aware of the ongoing global technical issues affecting Microsoft services.
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We → say → services
'We are working closely with Microsoft to assess any impact on government services, with robust contingency plans in place to minimise disruption.'
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We → work → disruption
The UK National Pharmacy Association said the outage will mean waits for prescriptions will be longer, as pharmacies cannot communicate with GP practices or patients by email.
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pharmacies → say → email
Some GP surgeries are unable to access their online consultation system, Rapid Health.
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surgeries → access → system
And NHS GP Dr Tim Frank, who works in Penzance, Cornwall, told the Today programme he had been unable to receive any emails, with Microsoft 'central' to NHS services.
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Microsoft → work → services
'This is going to be very disruptive today and Fridays are always a heavily laden day due to the upcoming weekend,' he added.
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he → go → weekend
Meanwhile UK Defence Minister Luke Pollard said this morning that systems need to be 'more resilient', adding it is 'deeply frustrating when your tech doesn't work'.
'Microsoft are onto the problem, they're making steps for it and I hope that they can resolve it very soon,' he continued.
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he → say → it
'But I'm afraid that in an environment where we're so dependent on technology, we do need to make sure that these systems are more resilient and where there are problems, that they can recover faster.
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they → need → technology
'I imagine that is the conversation that many of my government cyber colleagues are having with Microsoft at this moment.'
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many → imagine → moment
Rail company LNER in Britain has warned customers they may face issues retrieving tickets on email, while DHL has said it cannot guarantee email delivery.
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it → warn → delivery
The University of Cambridge said on Friday the outage had impacted email, calendars and SharePoint, warning that access could be 'unstable and intermittent'.
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access → say → email
It advised those affected to communicate using Teams if possible, or switch to 'mobile messaging'.
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It → advise → messaging
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has said Microsoft had told him the company did not believe the outage had been caused by a cyber attack, according to Reuters.
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outage → say → Reuters
China has also been affected by the Microsoft outage with many international firms in the country relying on Outlook or Teams as communication channels.
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firms → affect → channels
OpenAI said on Thursday afternoon that it was 'investigating an issue with Microsoft connectors where new connections may be broken and tools are not working as expected.
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tools → say → connectors
'We'll share an update when we know more.'
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we → share → more
…and 32 more, not listed.
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