Microsoft apologises for global outage, rules out cyberattack

Microsoft has apologised after a global outage disrupted Teams, Outlook and Copilot AI for nearly a day. As for the reason behind the incident, it ruled out a cyberattack and said that a technical fault linked to an earlier network capacity upgrade was behind the outage.

"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services," Microsoft said on X.

Microsoft cites technical fault

However, Microsoft gave no date for full restoration. It further stated that the problem emerged during an earlier capacity upgrade and surfaced after a later network change.

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"This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents. The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions," it added.

Microsoft had warned of the "residual impact" as engineers worked to restore affected systems.

Airlines and businesses report disruption

In India, IndiGo said its email assistance was affected and it might not receive customer messages.

Akasa Air reported delays in email assistance and directed passengers to its 24-hour customer care centre or social media. Air India said flights were unaffected and temporarily rerouted email so customer messages could reach the airline.

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Financial firms and businesses reported difficulty accessing material and contacting clients. Downdetector logged reports from Indian users around 11 pm on Thursday (November 12). Complaints rose again after 6 am on Friday (November 13).

Services restored gradually

According to Microsoft, the affected systems were restored gradually, and they were checking stability at each stage.

"Given the scale of demand, we restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage. While this took longer, it helped ensure a stable restoration."

Also Read: Microsoft services gradually restored in Asia Pacific, but Outlook disruption continues

It reported "encouraging recovery progress" as availability and email delivery improved.

"We know our customers rely on our services to get important work done every day, and regret the impact these outages had on those who depend on us," Microsoft said.

Downdetector logged more than 130,000 reports of Outlook problems. Disruptions were reported in more than 70 countries.