A disruption to Microsoft’s technology infrastructure has affected organisations and digital service users across at least 74 countries, with the impact extending beyond its products to artificial intelligence platforms and government operations.
Among the affected services were OpenAI and Anthropic’s tools, while reports also emerged of interruptions to government systems in Singapore and Japan, Australian intelligence agencies and communication facilities at the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
The incident, which had continued for more than 14 hours, affected Microsoft’s Outlook, Teams and Copilot platforms. The scale of the disruption comes against the backdrop of more than 430 million people relying on Microsoft 365 applications for work and communication.
Microsoft traced the problem to infrastructure pressure following the unexpected unavailability of some servers. It said the resulting increase in demand on operational servers complicated efforts to stabilise its systems.
The company acknowledged difficulties with its restoration plan, subsequently reporting some progress as technical teams examined server performance, verified installed patches and monitored infrastructure following reboots.
Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna dismissed concerns that the incident resulted from a cyberattack, maintaining that it was not a cybersecurity breach.
Downdetector recorded nearly 140,000 reports of Outlook problems on Thursday evening, with complaints dropping to about 28,000 overnight, although users continued to experience disruptions, TVC News reported, citing the BBC.
