Microsoft outage hits Teams, Outlook and Copilot in 74 countries

Microsoft is working to restore services after a widespread outage that affected tens of thousands of users and disrupted multiple cloud tools, including Teams, Outlook and the AI assistant Copilot. The company said it considers a cyberattack unlikely.

Scope and timeline

Monitoring site reports show users in 74 countries experienced connection problems, mainly across the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia, and the disruption had lasted for more than eight hours. The list of affected countries includes China and Russia, although traffic from those markets may be underreported because some monitoring sites are restricted there.

Microsoft acknowledged that remediation efforts “are not proceeding as expected,” after earlier saying engineers had seen “positive signs.” The company has continued work to fully restore affected services.

The outage also hit government IT systems. Masanao Ozaki, deputy chief cabinet secretary of Japan, said: "The Microsoft 365 outage early this morning (Japan time) spread worldwide, with several services, such as Outlook, not functioning. The government's IT infrastructure, GSS (Government Solution Service), was also affected. I understand the company is working to restore the system, and we are monitoring developments closely," Masanao Ozaki, deputy chief cabinet secretary.

In the United States, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pressed for a classified congressional briefing to examine unresolved questions tied to separate concerns involving Nvidia and potential national security implications. Jeffries said: "That was the right move. Now we must determine whether America's national security has been compromised. Congressman Greg Meeks, the incoming chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, together with Congressman Jim Himes, the incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, are leading efforts to fully illuminate what happened. Of course, there are more questions than answers. Earlier this week we had a briefing with classified information that primarily concerned the situation in Iran. We need a classified briefing, available to members of Congress, that will focus on the Nvidia matter and the extent to which our national security has been jeopardized. The American people deserve answers, and we will work to ensure they are obtained," Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat.

An expert who spoke to the BBC warned that if the outage is not the result of a cyberattack it would amount to an "incredible incompetence." More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 applications, underscoring the scale of the disruption.

The report also links the service crisis to recent upheaval at the centre of the global AI industry: it says the disruption followed the resignation of Nvidia boss Jensen Huang. His relationship with Alice Huang has drawn a security investigation amid suspicions of links to Chinese intelligence services, and Taiwan revoked her entry permit.

Photo: press material from the event