Microsoft has said there is no evidence that a cyber attack caused its global service outage, which left thousands of users unable to access emails, workplace messaging and other online tools.
The disruption began on Thursday, November 12, affecting Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services across dozens of countries.
Monitoring platform Downdetector recorded more than 130,000 reports of Outlook problems in the United States alone at the height of the incident. Reports were also received from 74 countries and territories within an hour.
Microsoft executive vice-president Charles Lamanna said the company had found no indication that malicious activity or hackers were responsible.
“There is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity,” Lamanna said.
Instead, Microsoft identified infrastructure overload and difficulties restoring servers as possible factors behind the disruption.
Recovery Attempts Fail to Work as Expected
Microsoft engineers attempted to manage the outage by redirecting internet traffic and restoring affected systems.
However, some servers became unresponsive again when users attempted to reconnect, preventing the recovery process from progressing as expected.
The company acknowledged that its initial technical changes were not producing the intended results, although it later reported improvements in server stability.
The investigation into the cause of the outage remains ongoing, with Microsoft expected to provide further information after services have been restored.
UK Government Activates Contingency Plans
The disruption has also prompted government departments to assess the potential impact on public services.
A UK Government spokesperson confirmed that officials were working with Microsoft to determine which services had been affected.
The spokesperson said contingency arrangements were in place to reduce disruption to government operations.
The statement followed reports of technical problems affecting organisations that depend on Microsoft’s cloud-based services for communication and daily activities.
European Cyber Attacks Raise Concerns Over Critical Infrastructure
Microsoft’s outage comes amid a series of cyber attacks and technology failures affecting businesses and essential services across Europe.
France recently accused Iran of orchestrating a cyber attack targeting refrigeration systems at hundreds of supermarkets.
The attackers reportedly gained remote control of refrigerators and freezers, causing temperatures to rise above 50C in some locations.
Thousands of tonnes of food were destroyed, with losses estimated at millions of euros. Some affected stores also experienced fires.
French authorities blamed a cyber warfare unit associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Similar incidents subsequently affected retailers in other European countries. Refrigeration equipment at French blood bank facilities was also targeted, although alarm systems prevented blood products from being destroyed.
Cyber Incidents Disrupt Major UK Retailers
Several major British retailers have experienced cyber-related disruption during 2026.
Marks & Spencer and the Co-op suffered significant operational problems earlier in the year, while fashion retailer Asos confirmed a separate security breach in October.
The owner of Hobbs, Whistles and Phase Eight also reported a cyber incident affecting parts of its UK operations.
H&M investigated claims made by the hacking group ShinyHunters but said it had found no indication that its data environment had been compromised.
The incidents affected businesses operating across retail and fashion, highlighting the exposure of commercial systems to cyber threats.
Google Cloud Outage Demonstrates Risks of Infrastructure Failures
A separate major technology disruption occurred on October 20, when Google’s cloud infrastructure experienced an outage affecting services hosted in its London region.
The incident lasted more than six hours and disrupted computing, database and other cloud services used by businesses.
Google attributed the problem to an external electrical power failure at a data centre rather than malicious cyber activity.
The incident demonstrated that major cloud providers can also experience widespread service interruptions caused by failures involving physical infrastructure.
Microsoft Outage Affects Organisations Beyond Individual Users
The Microsoft disruption has affected organisations that rely on Microsoft 365 for communication, document sharing and daily operations.
Government departments, courts, schools and businesses have reported problems, while organisations in Australia and Japan were among those affected.
The Samaritans charity also experienced difficulties accessing emails, shared documents and other cloud-based services.
Although Microsoft has ruled out evidence of a cyber attack, the outage has occurred during a period marked by significant cyber incidents targeting businesses and essential infrastructure.
The company continues to investigate the technical problems and has said it will provide an explanation of the underlying cause once the disruption has been resolved.
