Microsoft says it is 'deeply sorry' for global outage after almost 24 hours of disruption - follow live
Microsoft says it is deeply sorry for a global service outage that has disrupted millions of users, saying it is not related to cyber or AI/agents and was introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade It says it is seeing broad recovery and stability across its services after the outage which left Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot inaccessible in at least 70 countries - here's a timeline of how it unfolded Among those affected have been governments, businesses and personal users - the UK cyber minister says the outage has been inconvenient and disruptive with limited reports of impact on frontline service delivery South African winemaker Peter Pentz tells us communication with exporters has been brought to a standstill.
Microsoft says it is deeply sorry for a global service outage that has disrupted millions of users, saying it is not related to cyber or AI/agents and was introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade It says it is seeing broad recovery and stability across its services after the outage which left Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot inaccessible in at least 70 countries - here's a timeline of how it unfolded Among those affected have been governments, businesses and personal users - the UK cyber minister says the outage has been inconvenient and disruptive with limited reports of impact on frontline service delivery South African winemaker Peter Pentz tells us communication with exporters has been brought to a standstill.
Meanwhile, a group in London say they left the office because if emails weren't working it was time to go to the pub Edited by Jamie Whitehead and Manish Pandey, with technology reporters Tom Gerken, Shiona McCallum and Laura Cress The Microsoft outage highlights the lack of resilience in the UK's digital infrastructure, the chair of the House of Commons science and technology committee says.
Chi Onwurah says the incident also shows the dangers such a dependency can post to the country's security, economy and public services.
The committee previously published a report which stated the UK's reliance on a small number of US-based providers for digital infrastructure and public service delivery is a strategic and economic vulnerability.
Disruption was also reported by the Welsh government, which said it's using contingency arrangements as needed.
The prime minister's deputy spokeswoman said a range of services experienced disruptions today due to parts of government using Microsoft services.
And in Scotland, some systems were hit by the outage, with the Scottish justice secretary telling the BBC the government's resilience operation had been activated.
What happened
Microsoft says it is deeply sorry for a global service outage that has disrupted millions of users, saying it is not related to cyber or AI/agents and was introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade It says it is seeing broad recovery and stability across its services after the outage which left Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot inaccessible in at least 70 countries - here's a timeline of how it unfolded Among those affected have been governments, businesses and personal users - the UK cyber minister says the outage has been inconvenient and disruptive with limited reports of impact on frontline service delivery South African winemaker Peter Pentz tells us communication with exporters has been brought to a standstill.
Meanwhile, a group in London say they left the office because if emails weren't working it was time to go to the pub Edited by Jamie Whitehead and Manish Pandey, with technology reporters Tom Gerken, Shiona McCallum and Laura Cress The Microsoft outage highlights the lack of resilience in the UK's digital infrastructure, the chair of the House of Commons science and technology committee says.
Chi Onwurah says the incident also shows the dangers such a dependency can post to the country's security, economy and public services.
What changed
The committee previously published a report which stated the UK's reliance on a small number of US-based providers for digital infrastructure and public service delivery is a strategic and economic vulnerability.
Disruption was also reported by the Welsh government, which said it's using contingency arrangements as needed.
Who is affected
The prime minister's deputy spokeswoman said a range of services experienced disruptions today due to parts of government using Microsoft services.
And in Scotland, some systems were hit by the outage, with the Scottish justice secretary telling the BBC the government's resilience operation had been activated.
What to watch next
Watch for revised vendor guidance, fixed versions and mitigation updates.