For almost 24 hours the world stopped due to a global failure at Microsoft that affected companies and institutions from the United States to Europe, Asia and Australia. The tech giant has ruled out a cyber attack, but the emergency that began on Thursday and continued for most of Friday left billions of users around the world without access to part of Microsoft 365 services. Outlook, the Teams meeting platform and some functions of the artificial intelligence assistant Copilot were affected. In Italy, for example, the blocking of email also affected government offices and Palazzo Chigi. And while numerous Italian universities suffered interruptions to Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, thousands of workers found themselves without access to company email for hours. In total, problems were reported in 74 countries and territories.
In total, Microsoft-related issues have been reported in 74 countries and territories. In the United States alone, reports relating to Outlook exceeded 130 thousand in the initial phase of the emergency. In Australia the federal police and an intelligence agency were involved, while the consequences were particularly widespread in Great Britain, where the problems affected health, justice and security. Air traffic in general has not suffered major disruptions, although airlines' email communication channels and customer support have gone haywire, causing delays in notifying passengers of gate or schedule changes and overloading call centers.
Microsoft: "Problem after a network capacity update"
The blackout that affected Microsoft's services was caused by "a technical issue unrelated to cyber or AI/agents," the company explains in a post on the official X account. The incident, the group states, was triggered by a problem that emerged during a previous network capacity upgrade, following a recent change to the network itself. The issue has been resolved and service is being restored for customers and regions still affected.
Microsoft rules out a cyberattack
And as already done in the past few hours, Microsoft excludes a cyberattack: "We can confirm that there are no indications that this is the result of malicious or cyber activity. Our teams are examining what happened and how we can prevent similar problems in the future."
Microsoft: "Regrets the impact on customers"
Microsoft's downturn is being resolved but the giant's main services, including Outlook emails, still work intermittently. “We know that our customers depend on our services to get important work done every day, and we regret the impact these outages have had on those who rely on us,” explains the company through a new update posted to its X account. “We are seeing encouraging progress in recovery, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of the affected infrastructure. We will continue to share additional information as we have it,” it adds.
Lombardy Region: "With Microsoft down there will be no repercussions on hospitals"
The malfunction of the Microsoft systems recorded in the last few hours did not have any repercussions on clinical activities or on the provision of services to patients in the hospitals of the Lombardy healthcare system. The Lombardy Region announced this in a note. "The checks carried out by the Lombardy Region - explains the press release - exclusively highlighted disservices relating to e-mail, limited to hospital facilities that use the Microsoft systems affected by the problem". Healthcare activities, assistance and services aimed at citizens, it is underlined, continue regularly, without any consequences on the care of patients and treatment paths. "The monitoring of the Welfare Directorate - concludes the Region - is constant, in collaboration with the health structures involved, to guarantee the timely restoration of the services involved and continuity of care".
Microsoft: "Constant improvements in the service"
In its latest update, Microsoft highlighted that "we are seeing continued improvements in service availability as the recovery of Microsoft 365 continues." “While the functionality of the service continues to improve, some users may still experience intermittent connectivity issues or delays in email delivery,” it states.
Microsoft opens at -1.48% on the Nasdaq, affected by the disruptions to Outlook
Microsoft suffers on the Nasdaq at the start of the session: the shares of the Redmond giant lose 1.48%, to 515.27 dollars, due to global disruptions to Outlook, Teams and other platforms which are affecting users, companies and government systems in various countries.
Microsoft: 'Noticeable improvements' in Europe and North America
Microsoft announced around 3pm (CET) "continued recovery progress in affected regions, with broader improvements now seen in North America and sustained improvements across much of Europe."
RimborsoAlVolo: "Airline-passenger communications interrupted"
The blackout that hit Microsoft is also creating repercussions on the air traffic front, by blocking communications between passengers and airlines. This was stated by RimborsoAlVolo, a company specializing in air transport and passenger assistance, which underlines the consequences and inconveniences for travelers left "in the dark" today. Due to the disservices that are affecting "Microsoft's offer, the exchange of emails between carriers and passengers has been interrupted - explains RimborsoAlVolo - This means on the one hand the impossibility for travelers to send communications to airline operators via e-mail, on the other the failure to receive notices from customers about changes affecting flights, such as changes to departure times, gates, delays, or cancellations".
No significant impact on the German federal administration
According to reports from the German federal government, the Microsoft malfunction has so far had no significant repercussions on the federal administration. "We have received no reports of significant interruptions from the federal administration," said a spokesperson for the Digital Ministry in Berlin as reported by dpa. And a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry also said that, so far, it does not appear that the ministry or authorities linked to it have been affected. In the financial district of Frankfurt, however, internal communication was particularly affected. However, solutions have been found to continue working, explained a Commerzbank spokesperson.
Assoutenti: "Inconvenience for millions of users from Microsoft's downside"
"The problems that have been affecting various Microsoft services in various parts of the world since yesterday, including Outlook and the Microsoft 365 platform, are causing inconvenience to millions of citizens", reports Assoutenti, who underlines how the affected services are used every day by consumers and businesses for daily and work activities. "When platforms used daily by millions of people suddenly stop working, the consequences translate into concrete inconvenience for citizens, professionals and companies - states president Gabriele Melluso - The inability to access one's email inbox or work tools can prevent one from receiving important communications, managing documents, meeting deadlines and carrying out professional and commercial activities".
GB activates emergency plans for the public health service
England's public health service (NHS England) has activated emergency plans to deal with the global Microsoft failure, which also blocked email in several hospitals, such as those in Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, in the Manchester area. Healthcare facilities are applying "long-planned measures to manage IT failures", using, where possible, "other IT systems" or "paper records" to ensure essential care and appointments. An NHS spokesperson declared this, admitting inconvenience for staff.
Three Balearic municipalities go haywire with Microsoft disruptions in Spain
The interruption of Microsoft services has caused inconvenience in the Balearic Islands, in Spain, especially for companies, educational centers and public bodies that use Microsoft on a daily basis. Among the concrete cases, those reported in the Balearic Islands, where the municipalities of Ibiza, Sant Eularia and the Island Council of Ibiza were left without an operational email service.
Codacons, automatic compensation from Microsoft for citizens and businesses
Automatic compensation for citizens and businesses affected by the Microsoft blackout. This was asked by Codacons after the heavy inconveniences that have been experienced all over the world since yesterday. The company cannot simply restore its systems and consider the problem closed: it must answer for the consequences caused to its customers, says the association. And it therefore asks Microsoft to prepare an extraordinary compensation plan, with automatic credits for subscribers and bonuses in favor of private consumers. Otherwise the association will evaluate the possible compensation actions to be taken towards the company to protect all those damaged by the blackout.
Microsoft failure, no repercussions on railways and airports in Germany
The Microsoft failure did not cause any problems for rail traffic in Germany. "So far we have not noticed any repercussions on railway operations at a national level," said a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson, when asked about the matter, as reported by Dpa. According to a spokesperson, there are no repercussions on air traffic at Lufthansa either. A spokeswoman for Berlin Airport said Microsoft's problems had not affected flight operations. The German stock exchange was informed that securities trading was proceeding as usual: "Trading was not affected by the fault and is proceeding stably."
Also in Belgium there are problems regarding Microsoft for public bodies and universities
In Belgium, the global blackout of Microsoft services has caused disruption in public administrations and universities. The Bcss, the federal public body that coordinates the IT exchange of data between social security bodies, has announced that it has no longer been able to send or receive emails since 6pm yesterday. Problems have also been reported by the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
In the Netherlands, problems occurred in municipal offices, courts and universities
The blackout of Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook and Teams, is also causing widespread disruption in the Netherlands, involving municipal and provincial administrations, courts, universities and the media. This was reported by the Dutch news agency ANP, specifying that the problems mainly concern the sending and receiving of emails and access to digital services. Among the affected administrations are the municipalities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Delft, as well as numerous other cities, and the provinces of North and South Holland, Groningen, Overijssel and North Brabant.
Gb union: "Microsoft's failure has a serious impact on healthcare"
The global Microsoft failure is having a "severe impact" on ambulances and NHS facilities in the UK. This was declared by the British trade union Gmb. According to Rachel Harrison, the union's national director of public services, the operators of 999, the equivalent of the emergency number 112, and 111, the telephone line for non-urgent health problems, "are unable to pass on patient details in the usual way, which is creating a huge backlog and risks causing chaos". Harrison specified that emergency ambulances are operating regularly.
Microsoft: "Services improving, recovery in phases"
On
Meanwhile, reports of problems continue to arrive from all over the world: from the United Kingdom to Belgium, passing through Holland.
After the interruption that began on Thursday 12 November, Microsoft admitted that the measures taken to restore the service are not producing the desired results and that alternative solutions are being studied. At the moment there has been a "partial restoration" of services, but it is not known when everything will be fully operational again.
