What caused Microsoft's failure and 3 other keys regarding the tech giant's global service outage

Image source, Getty Images Author, Helen Davidson Author, BBC News Author, Jessica Lamb Author, BBC News Author, Helen Sullivan Author, BBC News Published 18 minutes ago Reading time: 3 min A massive global service disruption by Microsoft has caused problems or, in some cases, disabled complete services in various regions of the world, including email and artificial intelligence products. According to the monitoring website Downdetector, reports of problems with the email provider Outlook reached their peak globally around 6:00 PM GMT on Thursday. Microsoft has stated that the service disruption was not caused by a cybersecurity incident, but efforts to fix the problems have not been very successful so far. Here is what we know about the affected services and what went wrong. What services are affected? Microsoft 365 services—including Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft's artificial intelligence software, Copilot—have been affected by "connectivity issues." The full magnitude of the disruption has not yet been confirmed, but the monitoring website Downdetector registered 140,000 users from 74 countries reporting problems with Outlook on Thursday night. According to the Microsoft website, more than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 applications. Companies around the world also use this software, and it is expected to have a chain reaction effect on other services. While customers report different levels of access, many have been unable to send or receive emails, or view certain files or details in their calendar applications. Some users have been able to use Teams normally and are using messaging and online meeting functions as usual. Who else has been affected? Tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic have reported problems as a consequence of the service disruption. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has stated that it is investigating a problem affecting its connections with Microsoft services, which has caused some tools not to function as expected. Government bodies and services, including the Singaporean government and the Australian intelligence agency, have also stated they have been affected. Several primary care health centers across the UK have warned of possible problems, and some have advised patients to conduct urgent consultations by phone instead of via email or web form. What went wrong? The outage of Outlook and other Microsoft services has meant the loss of the workday for many companies. Microsoft has ruled out a cyberattack and attributed the service disruption to a "high load" on its infrastructure. The term refers to a situation where servers support a much higher volume of load than usual. In the case of the Microsoft service disruption, a large number of servers became "unexpectedly inaccessible," the company reported, which generated additional traffic on the remaining servers, overloading them. On Friday morning, Microsoft declared having observed "minor success" in its efforts to resolve the incident. The company indicated in its latest update that it continues to monitor activity in all regions to assess the status of the servers and determine what measures it can take to improve capacity. In a previous statement, the tech giant had said that its attempts to solve the problem "were not yielding the expected results." What have experts said? Australian cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt told the BBC that the service disruption could have far-reaching consequences. "Microsoft is a fundamental part of internet infrastructure and reminds us how crucial email still is." "This disruption not only affects many people's ability to work but also aspects such as communication to schedule appointments, buy items that require verification, and create or access accounts and services," he stated. Paul Spain, from the New Zealand consultancy Gorilla Technology, stated that because emails and services were out of service, companies have practically "lost a workday," which is "frustrating" for users. This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before its publication. More information on how we use AI. Download the new BBC World Service app. Choose BBC News Mundo and receive news, documentaries, and analysis alerts, all in one place. Important: the new application is not available in the UK or the United States. You can also follow us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and on our WhatsApp channel. And don't forget to subscribe here to our newsletter to receive a special selection of our best content every Friday. Discover more. Skip Video and continue Video End of Video