More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, and tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic have reported problems as a result of the outage
Live Reporting
Edited by Yvette Tan with reporting from Osmond Chia
Outage hits China, a country familiar with tech battles and firewallspublished at 06:17 GMT
06:17 GMT
Laura Bicker China correspondent
Here in Beijing, we are also affected by the Microsoft Outlook and Teams outage.
This is particularly frustrating as access to so many Western internet services are already restricted.
Most Chinese firms use software that has been made in China - WPS Office is a favourite.
But Outlook is one of the few reliable channels for many offices and businesses in the country who work with colleagues across the world.
China operates one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of internet censorship known as the Great Firewall which restricts access to many Western websites including Google, Facebook and Instagram along with many international news organisations including the BBC. So battling with technology is not new to most of us living here.
But some netizens on Chinese social media who do use Outlook are looking on the bright side of the disruption.
"Thanks to Microsoft we can have our weekend earlier,” wrote one.
Japanese government also facing some tech disruptionspublished at 06:09 GMT
06:09 GMT
The Japanese government says its shared IT platform has also been disrupted by the Microsoft outage.
"We understand that Microsoft is working to restore services, and we will continue to monitor the company’s response," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki told reporters earlier today.
Digital Minister Toshiharu Furukawa said that the various agencies that use Outlook "have secured multiple alternative means of communication, such as telephone, chat tools and text messages".
With these methods, "government operations are continuing without disruption".
How does this compare to previous tech disruptions?published at 06:04 GMT
06:04 GMT
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
The CrowdStrike outage caused chaos in airports around the world
In 2024, a faulty software update distributed by cyber-security firm CrowdStrike crashed thousands of Microsoft Windows devices globally - in what is one of the largest IT disruptions in history.
The IT issue led to thousands of flights being grounded, took emergency services offline and halted some banking operations as computers went down.
Microsoft had then said that it estimated that 8.5m computers around the world were disabled by the outage, which took several days for affected companies to patch.
This has been a hard couple of weeks for techpublished at 05:55 GMT
05:55 GMT
Image source, Getty Images
It's been an eventful time in the tech world - and not in a good way.
One of the world's most valuable companies as a result of the AI boom, Nvidia lost $550bn (£415bn) in stock market value in just five days as after a scandal involving its now-ex CEO Jensen Huang dominated the headlines.
Indian companies now in wait-and-watch modepublished at 05:49 GMT
05:49 GMT
Rachita Prasad Reporting from Mumbai
It’s past 11:00 local time in India and the outage is disrupting work for many, with emails not landing and Teams calls not going through smoothly.
I spoke to some people working in the equity markets who said they panicked when they realised they couldn’t access daily research reports before their morning meeting where they make their big decisions of the day.
"Outlook wasn't working. We fortunately have an alternative so it was not a problem. But we conduct most of our calls, especially with big clients, on Teams - that has been a challenge," a senior executive with a big Indian brokerage said on condition of anonymity.
Indian companies which are set to report quarterly results today, and some who announced them earlier, are mostly in wait-and-watch mode as they have planned calls with investors and analysts.
What causes an 'elevated load'?published at 05:37 GMT
05:37 GMT
Microsoft has attributed to the ongoing outage to "elevated load" on its infrastructure.
The term refers to when computer servers are handling a much higher volume of stress than it usually does.
In the case of the Microsoft outage, a large number of servers became "unexpectedly unavailable", which sent added traffic to remaining servers, straining these.
Users all over the world affected, says Downdetectorpublished at 05:23 GMT
05:23 GMT
Data from monitoring site Downdetector suggests the outage has affected users and critical infrastructure across 74 countries and territories. This map shows its impact is largely concentrated in the Americas, Europe, and Australia.
Large parts of Asia and Africa remain unaffected, according to Downdetector, which monitors outages based on users' reports. These include China and Russia, where the use of Microsoft applications is heavily restricted, or phased out in favour of domestic alternatives.
However, there could also be a case of under-reporting in these countries, where Downdetector is among the websites blocked due to censorship.
Microsoft says still fixing issues on multiple frontspublished at 05:14 GMT
05:14 GMTBreaking
Microsoft says it is still working on ways to fix the issue.
The firm says it has "engaged in multiple workstreams to alleviate impact" and return services back to "a healthy state".
It also said about half an hour ago that it was seeing "partial recovery" across regions where it has applied fixes, but that these actions were not "resulting in sustained recovery".
Millions of Indians return to outage at work after extended Diwali breakpublished at 05:07 GMT
05:07 GMT
Rachita Prasad Reporting from Mumbai
Image source, Getty Images
Millions of Indians woke up to a rude shock on Friday morning as they discovered that their trusted Microsoft applications – especially Outlook, a professional lifeline for many – were not working.
The outage was particularly hard for those who were returning to work after an extended break for Diwali, which was celebrated on Sunday and Monday.
But soon, the jokes started coming, with many suggesting on social media and office groups that this was a sign to just continue being on holiday. Their managers may disagree.
Government systems in Singapore among those affectedpublished at 05:00 GMT
05:00 GMT
Singapore authorities have also confirmed that the outage has affected some government systems, but "emergency services remain fully operational".
"The email disruption may delay responses to enquiries," Singapore's Government Technology Agency told local media.
"For updates on e-services, please check the relevant agency’s official website or social media channels... For urgent matters, members of the public can contact the agency through other channels, such as its call centre," the agency said.
Outage already one of the worst, says expertpublished at 04:50 GMT
04:50 GMT
Osmond Chia Business reporter
Hundreds of millions of people use Microsoft's suite of apps, which could potentially make this outage the "largest productivity impact" ever in the Asia Pacific region so far, says New Zealand-based tech analyst Paul Spain.
It could go on to be the "most severe technology outage in history" impacting billions of dollars in operations if the disruption hits 24 hours, he adds.
The situation is a reminder that businesses need to have back up plans, such as when their workplace tools go down, Spain says.
Microsoft has said the outage is unlikely to be because of a cyber-attack - one expert has said that this then points to "incredible incompetence"
Millions of companies are estimated to use Microsoft services - including tech giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have both reported problems as a result of the outage
It's caused widespread disruption, including to public services
Scammers may capitalise on this outage, banks and universities warnpublished at 04:27 GMT
04:27 GMT
Banks, universities and other institutions across the world are warning users to beware of fake offers of "IT support", as fraudsters often capitalise on such outages.
ING Australia urged customers to "be on alert". "Remember, be wary of messages you receive out of the blue – especially if it contains a link to download an app, or to connect to phone or video call," the banking group wrote on X.
Old Domnion University in the US state of Virginia has also asked students to watch out for phishing email and texts claiming to offer IT support.
In New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has asked businesses to stay vigilant about sensitive information.
"Staff should only use approved communication channels and avoid sharing confidential or customer details over personal email accounts or unapproved platforms just to keep work moving," says a ministry spokesman.
This outage could have far-reaching consequences - expertpublished at 04:18 GMT
04:18 GMT
Jessica Lamb Live reporter
Cyber-security expert Troy Hunt is warning that this outage could have far-reaching consequences.
Hunt, who is based in Australia, says this outage will impact more than just Microsoft users.
“Microsoft is a massive part of the internet backbone and reminds us how critical email still is. Not only does this outage affect many people’s ability to work but also things like the ability to communicate about appointments, purchase things that need verification, create or access accounts and services,” he said.
He says it has driven home the importance of businesses having contingency plans and work arounds for outages.
Some public services in Australia have been affectedpublished at 04:09 GMT
04:09 GMT
Some public services in Australia – one of the first countries to wake up to the outage on Friday – have been affected by the outage.
Service NSW, the one-stop shop to government services in the state of New South Wales which includes cities like Sydney, has urged customers to delay their visit to a service centre and to complete transactions online, where possible.
Authorities in the Northern Territory have also reported that their services were down, according to the Australian Associated Press.
Some hospitals and healthcare institutions have said they are experiencing clerical issues but stress these do not affect patient care.
Michael Bonning, president of the Australian Medical Association, told The Guardian: "We don’t use any of these things for direct patient care... We’ve always got workarounds for that."
In the meantime, some of the association's facilities have "returned to using paper for scripts".
If this is not a cyber-attack, it is 'incredible incompetence' - expertpublished at 03:50 GMT 03:50 GMT
Osmond Chia Business reporter
Microsoft has indicated that the outage is unlikely to have come from a cyber-attack.
But if that is the case, the issue stems from "incredible incompetence" that can potentially cost millions of dollars in economic impact if it continues, says Paul Spain from New Zealand-based advisory firm Gorilla Technology.
With e-mails and services offline, companies have practically "lost a business day", which is "frustrating" users, he added.
Microsoft does not think this is a cyber-attack - Australia ministerpublished at 03:41 GMT
03:41 GMT
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Tony Burke
Australia's Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Tony Burke says he's spoken to Microsoft officials in the country, who "do not believe they are dealing with a cyber event".
"They believe that they're dealing in some ways similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike, where there is an update that has gone awry," Burke told reporters earlier today.
The impact from today's outage "is very much on email systems", Burke says.
"One of the things that we had with CrowdStrike was we then had a whole lot of downstream impacts where it was affected the capability of a whole range of other products," he notes.
Millions of people across the world were affected by a massive outage in July 2024 after CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity company, released a faulty software update which froze Windows-operated computers.