Global Microsoft outage disrupts businesses, forces traders to use fax

A prolonged Microsoft outage affecting Outlook and Teams on Friday disrupted business operations, government services and financial activities worldwide, highlighting the risks of global dependence on Big Tech infrastructure.
The over 12-hour outage, longer than most previous outages, has forced some organisations to revert to fax machines and halted at least one bond repurchase in Europe.
From Asia to the US, Microsoft’s outage dragged on for hours as the technology giant struggled to fix the issue.
At least 74 countries have been affected by the outage since it was detected after midday US Eastern Time (17:00 GMT) on Thursday.
The situation reportedly remained unresolved as of 10pm on Friday, while this report was being prepared.
Microsoft reports gradual recovery across regions
The tech company says it is seeing some improvements in parts of the world that were affected by the global service outage.
“We’re seeing continued recovery progress across affected regions, with broader improvements in North America, sustained improvements across much of Europe, and encouraging recovery signals in Asia Pacific,” the company said in a post on X Friday, adding that “some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery”, as it works to stabilise the areas impacted, Aljazeera reported.
In another post, the company said “email queues [are] significantly reduced and approaching normal levels.”
It also said the outage was affecting a wide range of Microsoft 365 offerings that interact with its Exchange Online and email services. Services including Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot were reported by users to be down, AP reports.
The outage prevented people from performing essential functions such as sending emails, managing calendars and hosting virtual meetings.
It affected government agencies from Australia to Japan and the United States, caused delays at trading firms, hindered some companies from publishing earnings and prompted airlines to warn customers of communication lags, according to public statements.
Organizations that host Microsoft services on their own servers, rather than in the cloud, were somewhat spared.

Global businesses scramble to keep operations running
A spokesperson for the UK government said it was working with Microsoft to find a solution for the outage that hit organizations such as the NHS and London’s Metropolitan Police.
Lack of access emails and other services was impacting the Metropolitan Police's ability to report some crimes online, though its ability to respond to calls was not affected.
NHS said its local services were turning to alternate measures such as using IT systems or paper records.
For businesses, the fallout was widespread.
European exchange operator Euronext reported email disruptions, British insurer Aviva activated backups for its earnings calls and Danish shipping giant Maersk warned customers of delayed updates.
American AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic also faced issues with Microsoft connectors, while Indian airlines IndiGo INGL.NS, Akasa Air and Air India said their email support services were impacted.
The outage also disrupted fund management at Taiwanese securities firms, life insurers, and investment trust companies. One of the companies went as far as cancelling a bond repurchase transaction, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Another Taiwanese financial company resorted to using fax to confirm trades, a second source said.
In the US, electric truck maker Workhorse Group rescheduled its results on Thursday to November 16, while Switzerland's Richemont CFR.S briefly delayed its first-half results announcement on Friday.
In Australia, where the spy agency and federal police were among organizations caught in the outage, Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft does not suspect a cyber attack.
"The impact that they are dealing with ... is very much on email systems," the minister added.