The key facts

  • The Microsoft 365, Outlook and Teams outage was recorded in 74 countries and territories
  • New Zealand suspended processing of all visa applications
  • Microsoft cited infrastructure overload as the cause and stated there were no signs of an attack

What Happened

A global outage in Microsoft services — Microsoft 365, Outlook and Teams — disrupted the operations of government and private services in Japan, New Zealand, India and Australia on Friday. According to the Downdetector tracker, outages were recorded in 74 countries and territories; in the US alone, about 100,000 complaints had been registered by Thursday afternoon. The first complaints from Indian users appeared around 11 p.m. on Thursday, and their number rose again by Friday morning.

Consequences by Country

In Japan, according to Kyodo News, Digital Policy Minister Toshiharu Furukawa said that government email had become unavailable, and officials had to switch to phone calls, chats and SMS. Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa noted: 'The impact is undoubtedly serious.' Pharmaceutical company Taisho Pharmaceutical switched to taking orders by phone, while logistics firm Sagawa Express suspended online booking of baggage delivery.

Visas, Flights, Courts

In New Zealand, immigration authorities suspended the processing of all visa applications until further notice, as Radio New Zealand reported. In India, airline SpiceJet cancelled three flights from Delhi to Pune, Leh and Mumbai, and two more flights — to Darbhanga and Mumbai — were delayed. In Australia, according to ABC News, the outage affected the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, while courts in South Australia and Victoria reported disruptions to their operations.

Cause and Recovery

Microsoft attributed the outage to increased load on its infrastructure, which caused connection problems, and stated that no signs of malicious activity had been detected. By 07:30 GMT, the company reported improved server stability after installing a software patch, but recovery work was still ongoing.