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A widespread Microsoft outage has disrupted healthcare services, airline operations, financial institutions and government activities across 74 countries and territories, exposing the growing dependence of essential services on cloud-based technology.
The disruption, which affected Microsoft 365 applications including Outlook, Teams and Copilot, left businesses struggling to communicate, delayed corporate earnings reports and interrupted administrative operations in several countries.
In the United Kingdom, healthcare workers reported significant difficulties managing emergency calls, with the GMB trade union warning that the disruption was having a “serious impact” on the National Health Service (NHS).
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Rachel Harrison, the union’s public services head, said NHS staff receiving emergency calls were unable to access and refer patient information through normal channels, creating substantial backlogs and increasing the risk of operational failures.
The outage also disrupted business activities in London’s financial district, where professionals acknowledged their increasing reliance on Microsoft’s artificial intelligence tools.
Yashmit Sharma, a 26-year-old auditor, said the Copilot failure showed how deeply AI-powered applications had become integrated into daily business operations.
“I think one of the biggest things is Copilot not working, and you can sort of see the dependency now on Copilot,” Sharma said.
Another financial professional, identified only as Sheera, warned that organisations needed stronger contingency plans to manage unexpected technology failures, particularly when essential communication platforms become inaccessible.
Microsoft said “malicious” activity was not to blame for an Outlook outage that left users worldwide without its crucial services on November 13, but said it was making headway in fixing the massive disruption. AFP
The disruption extended to international aviation, with Indian carriers IndiGo and Akasa Air warning customers that their email support services had been affected.
In New Zealand, immigration authorities suspended visa application processing until further notice, while Japanese officials warned of potentially significant economic consequences.
Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa said the widespread use of Microsoft’s software meant the disruption could have a “significant impact” across multiple sectors.
Microsoft attributed the connectivity failures to “elevated load” affecting infrastructure across several regions, while ruling out any known malicious activity.
The company reported “encouraging recovery progress” in Europe and improving services in North America, although it acknowledged difficulties achieving full restoration despite implementing corrective measures.
According to outage-monitoring platform Downdetector, reports of service failures began declining by 0900 GMT, suggesting gradual improvements. However, users continued reporting problems with Outlook, Teams and Copilot.
The Australian Computer Society has called for a national review of technology infrastructure risks, warning that smaller businesses may lack alternative systems when major digital platforms fail.
Its chief executive, Prins Ralston, said governments and businesses must ensure essential technology systems can withstand unexpected disruptions.
The incident has renewed questions about the resilience of global digital infrastructure and the risks associated with concentrating critical public and private services on a limited number of technology providers.
Although Microsoft has reported improvements, the disruption has demonstrated how a single infrastructure failure can affect healthcare delivery, international travel, government administration and corporate operations across continents.
