Microsoft outage live updates: Outlook, Teams, Copilot hit across the world as boss says it does not appear to be a cyber attack

Microsoft is scrambling to restore services after an outage left users without access to emails. The Daily Mail’s ELIANA SILVER explains the impact:

Microsoft said in its latest update on the disruption to Microsoft 365 products that it was seeing ‘positive results for server stability’.

The group said on its status page: ‘We’re seeing positive results for server stability after applying an upstream authentication/routing configuration component patch to a portion of our infrastructure.

‘We’ll continue to monitor its progress and are working to expand it to servers supporting active regions coming online.

‘As of now, we are not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident.

‘We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution.

‘Once mitigated, we will provide full details of the root cause, defence-in-depth repair items, and more within a post-incident report.’

More social media users are sharing memes poking fun at the Microsoft outage:

Dr Tim Frank, an NHS GP based in Penzance, Cornwall, said Microsoft products are ‘central’ to the operation of services in his area.

He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘This is going to be very disruptive today and Fridays are always a heavily laden day due to the upcoming weekend.’

Dr Frank explained that alternative communication numbers are now being distributed among teams, to minimise the impact on patients.

The Government is ‘engaging with Microsoft’ on getting systems back online, Defence Minister Luke Pollard has said.

Mr Pollard said the Microsoft outage demonstrated the need for ‘greater resilience’ against technology failures.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We are looking carefully at the outages that Microsoft systems are experiencing.

‘The teams at DCMS who lead for the Government, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, lead our digital work, and they are engaging with Microsoft as they have been to look at how we get systems back online, what the impact is on the wider economy.

‘But for me this reinforces the need for greater resilience.

‘My appetite for disruption when it comes to using my phone is virtually zero. I imagine that’s the case for every one of your listeners, that people want it to work all the time, every time, and we’re seeing more disruption from those tech companies.

‘That’s partly because we’ve become more dependent on technology.’

The UK’s National Pharmacy Association says the outage is affecting access to the NHS email system.

This is having an impact on the ability of pharmacies to communicate with GP practices and some patients.

A spokesman adds: ‘Please bear with your pharmacy teams today, where waits may be longer than normal and there may be delays to some prescriptions.’

Hong Kong businessperson Danny Lau, who runs an aluminium firm, said his company’s Outlook accounts could not receive updates from their US customers due to the outage.

He said that if the situation dragged on further, this could ‘impact the production timeline’.

The Philippines’ Supreme Court said in a statement on X that the ongoing Microsoft 365 service outage has affected some of its operations, including email responses.

Singapore’s Government Technology Agency said that government emails were down and that the agency is working with Microsoft to resolve the issue.

Air India said its flight operations were unaffected by the global Microsoft outage.

However, it temporarily rerouted its email services to ensure customer queries continued to reach the airline without interruption, the company said in a statement.

IndiGo, another Indian airline company, said it also reported disruptions to its email support services, which affected its ability to receive customer queries.

The airline in a statement on X said its other support channels remained operational and its flight operations were unaffected.

The Metropolitan Police have also now reported issues after the Microsoft outage.

In a notice on the force’s website, it said: ‘Due to a global Microsoft service issue, some online form submissions may be affected.

‘If your report is time-critical but not an emergency, please call 101. In an emergency, call 999.’

DHL Freight has warned customers that it ‘cannot guarantee reliable email delivery’ because of the disruption.

It has asked people to ‘contact us via alternative channels such as telephone’.