Microsoft announced today, Saturday, that its Teams, Outlook, CoPilot, and other software services have completely returned to normal, ending a global outage that disrupted online communications for companies and government agencies for more than 24 hours.
The company wrote on the “X” platform: “We have completed our efforts to address the basic problem behind this incident and have restored service to customers and the remaining areas that were affected by the outage.”
In light of the widespread technical paralysis that struck Microsoft's cloud services and communication systems and affected millions of users, companies, and government agencies around the world, an additional danger has emerged that is no less dangerous than the failure itself. Electronic fraud networks were quick to exploit the prevailing state of confusion and panic.
With the disruption of vital platforms such as Outlook and Teams, hackers intensified their phone and email phishing attempts, offering false promises to repair accounts or providing quick alternative paths to overcome the crisis, with the aim of stealing sensitive data and hacking personal and institutional accounts. This reality puts technology users before a real test of the importance of vigilance and relying exclusively on official channels, avoiding falling into the trap of fake promises that trade their digital security for flimsy promises of a solution.
Leonid Bezverchenko, chief security researcher at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team GReAT, confirms that the outage of Microsoft 365 services on November 12 and 13, 2026, which caused the platform’s business tools to be disabled, created a state of confusion and urgency, conditions that fraudsters are quick to exploit. Employees and customers become more likely to trust messages that appear to offer updates, workarounds, or quick ways to regain access to services when normal communication channels stop working. For organizations that have not implemented cybersecurity solutions capable of blocking malicious redirects or detecting unusual network activity, this situation can develop into a much more serious threat than just a temporary delay in workflow.
Threat actors can exploit incidents of this type in several ways, including sending fraudulent emails or text messages impersonating Microsoft or internal technical support teams, sending fake notifications to reset passwords, circulating fake links to restore services, or directing users to fake login pages aimed at stealing their credentials and MultiFactor Authentication (MFA) codes.
Another possible scenario is for attackers to impersonate technical support staff via phone calls to request remote access to the user's computer or post fake service status updates via social media platforms, personal email, or messaging applications. A simple request like “re-authenticate” or “verify your account” may seem reliable during an actual outage because it is in line with what the user would expect to see in such circumstances.
Organizations should direct employees and customers to one official, trusted source for updates, warn them of unsolicited support requests, and emphasize that official service providers will never ask for passwords, MFA codes, or grant remote access without prior approval.
Security teams must also monitor impersonation attempts, move quickly to block counterfeit domains whenever possible, and ensure that technical support staff adhere to strict verification procedures. As for users, it is good practice to use reliable anti-virus solutions to ensure that these fraudulent attempts are alerted and protected against them.
The offices of the Singaporean group "Megaspeed", which specializes in data centers, appeared empty during a visit conducted by "Agence France-Presse." It appears that its employees left months before spying accusations emerged against it.
This week, the name of former Megaspeed director Alice Huang, who US intelligence suspects of being a Chinese spy, emerged. Reports indicated an affair with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
Information regarding the details of Alice Huang's life is scarce, making it almost impossible to know her place of residence, work, or date of birth.
But there is no doubt that its influence is much greater than the information available about it and extends beyond the boundaries of the humble office in Singapore to the huge data centers in Southeast Asia, all the way to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley.
Its connection to the cloud computing company Megaspeed is at the center of this scandal.
No one came in or out
MegaSpeed uses advanced NVIDIA chips to power high-performance computing capabilities within massive data centers.
But suspicions of espionage are now swirling around her. Purchasing computing equipment for its data centers in Southeast Asia is believed to be a cover to help Beijing circumvent trade restrictions by sending Nvidia-designed chips to China.
Beijing has denied involvement in any espionage, while Megaspeed said it is investigating the group's compliance with export controls imposed on these strategically important chips.
At the Megaspeed offices in Singapore's business district, there is no trace of any employee behind the closed glass entrance. Neighborhood visitors told Agence France-Presse that no one had entered or left there in recent months.
The same is true in one of the commercial centers in a neighborhood in Johor, the Malaysian region separated by a bridge from Singapore, where there is no trace of any employee in the office of the group’s subsidiary Speedmatrix.
The Singapore Police opened an investigation in February 2025 into Megaspeed and other companies suspected of circumventing or violating export controls. Alice Huang was subjected to questioning as part of this investigation.
Although no charges were brought against her, Singapore banned Chinese national Alice Huang from entering its territory in February 2026 on the grounds that she provided incorrect information to investigators “to diminish her role in Megaspeed,” according to what the Singaporean Ministry of Interior announced.
A meteoric rise
Company records show Huang played a direct role in the creation of Megaspeed.
Records show that a related company acquired the Singapore branch of Chinese video game developer 7Road International in early 2023.
Shortly after that, the name was changed to “Megaspeed International”.
Huang's name was listed as a director at Megaspeed for less than a year; She held the position between March and November 2023.
Her arrival coincided with a radical change in the company's finances. Megaspeed has transformed from an obscure video game maker into one of the largest buyers of NVIDIA chips in Asia.
Within one year, Megaspeed's revenues jumped from zero to about $300 million, according to the company's accounts filed in 2024.
Megaspeed, which describes itself as a “cloud hosting services provider,” saw the value of its assets skyrocket from $32 million to about $3 billion during the same period.
The cost of just one of Nvidia's advanced chips for computing with artificial intelligence can reach tens of thousands of dollars.
Reports indicate that the value of the chips that were traded, bought or sold amounted to more than four billion dollars.
A network of financial transactions between Singapore, Malaysia, and the Cayman Islands indicates that Megaspeed's growth may have been enhanced by its association with the giant Chinese group, Alibaba.
Megaspeed has a Malaysian branch that concluded an agreement in 2024 in which it pledged to mortgage assets to the IBEX Enterprise Solutions company in Singapore as security in the event of breach of contractual obligations.
Corporate data in Singapore shows that Ibex is linked, through an owner company, to Alibaba Holding Group, a company registered in the Cayman Islands.
At that time, Huang's term as a manager at Megaspeed had expired.
But authorities in Singapore said they were still considered to be in “effective control” of the company. Megaspeed has a Singaporean holding company, Swiftdata.
Singaporean businessman Tan Yong Pong, who previously ran printing and graphic design companies, is a director in Megaspeed and Swiftdayta.
No one answered when Agence France-Presse visited Tan's registered address in eastern Singapore, while dogs barking could be heard from behind the door.
“They are friendly,” said a nearby resident. "I sometimes meet the lady at the elevator, but we haven't seen them for months."
“an honest man”
In June 2025, American investigators came to Megaspeed as part of “post-shipment verification procedures” in the presence of Huang, according to the Singaporean Ministry of Interior, which noted that this was the first time it became aware of the existence of an American investigation into the case.
That day, Singaporean police subjected Huang to interrogation and confiscated her passport.
During that period, Huang was seen in public places with NVIDIA President Jensen Huang.
They were seen hugging each other at a dinner held after the Computex technology exhibition in Taiwan in early 2024.
US President Donald Trump was briefed on the intelligence community's findings about their relationship long before the scandal unfolded, but he said on Sunday that he did not regret not taking any action about it. “I think he's an honest man,” Trump said. But the scandal has raised concerns about national security.
China and the United States are locked in a fierce competition for leadership in a sector widely viewed as the next industrial revolution.
Nvidia controls about 90 percent of the chip market used to train and operate artificial intelligence models, and in 2022 the United States imposed restrictions on the sale of these chips to China.
In past years, Jensen Huang has urged Trump to lift those restrictions. In any case, the restrictions appear to have been widely circumvented.
A Chinese university with close ties to the country's defense sector recently purchased advanced artificial intelligence chips designed by Nvidia, according to a purchase announcement dated October 21.
On Friday, Malaysia announced that it had opened an investigation into one of the branches of the Megaspeed International group regarding the possibility of smuggling artificial intelligence chips to other countries. Megaspeed said that it had hired an American law firm to examine the extent of its compliance. It stressed its compliance with US export control laws.
Network of companies
Alice Huang occupies a central position in a complex network of companies, linked to a large number of shell companies, institutional investors and major Chinese technology companies.
Company records filed in Hong Kong list her name as a director of Nanjing Lingxing Technology, which operates T3, the popular ride-hailing platform in China.
Other prominent investors in Nanjing Lingxing Technology include Alibaba and Tencent, in addition to state-backed automakers such as China FAW and Dongfeng Motor Group.
A biography published by a Chinese investment firm details Huang's meteoric rise in investment banking in Asia.
The biography indicates that she held a senior position at HSBC Bank around 2012, then worked at CITIC Securities and Shanghai Hexi Investment Company.
Business records in Singapore describe her as a Chinese national with a Hong Kong passport.
She was born in Hunan Province, China, and studied media in Hong Kong, according to the news platform HK01.
A Chinese state television reporter wrote on the Weibo platform that he worked with Huang in this media organization, but later deleted his post.
