'And so it begins…' UK preppers stockpiling for 'disaster' say Microsoft meltdown proves how 'easily our lives can be disrupted'

The nine-to-five crowd may have reacted to Microsoft’s global meltdown with a deluge of memes, but the UK’s so-called ‘preppers’ have insisted the widespread outage is no laughing matter.Professional middle-class Britons ‘bracing for doomsday’ took to Facebook to declare ‘and so it begins’ after the outage knocked out various platforms, including Outlook, in what has been dubbed the ‘most disruptive email-related business’ blackout of all time.Governments, police forces and hospitals around the world reported problems with their services - and members of social media prepper groups said the outage is a ‘taste of what’s to come’ and a ‘real-world stress test’ of our emergency responses.Writing on Facebook, one user warned: '[The outage] makes you realise how fragile our systems are and the havoc it can cause when things stop working.‘Alongside the attacks on European supermarket refrigerators last week, it is clear we are going to have a massive increase in attacks on infrastructure and the problem is not going to go away. It will be electricity supplies next.’Last week, British supermarkets were placed on high alert after shops across Europe were hit by cyber hackers who seized control of their cooling units, causing fires and food losses.Together with the Microsoft outage, there’s never been more proof of how ‘easily our everyday lives can be disrupted’ and why it’s never been more important to have a plan B, said Ana, who founded the UK Preppers Club on Facebook.The 49-year-old prepper from Wales told the Daily Mail: ’For years we’ve been called crazy, paranoid and conspiracy theorists just for suggesting that people should have a few supplies at home and a backup plan.‘Then something like this happens on top of everything else that has been happening, and suddenly people realise just how much we rely on technology and how easily our everyday lives can be disrupted.’Ana, 49, who founded the UK Preppers Club on Facebook, says the Microsoft outage is more proof everyone should have a plan B Dr Sarita Robinson said her fellow 'preppers' on Facebook are 'right' and that the outage should be viewed as a 'real-world stress test for our emergency preparednessAna questioned why preppers like her are still being mocked 'for doing something that actually makes sense' and stockpiling essentials in case of an emergency when an email outage can wreak such havoc. 'We haven’t had a major national emergency, yet look at the disruption it can cause,' she said. 'Imagine if something more serious happened or the systems were down for days rather than hours.'She clarified that the Microsoft outage doesn't necessarily mean we should be building a bunker or stockpiling Heinz baked beans, but rather evaluating how to 'secure your family bubble'. 'The whole point of being prepared is that you don’t need to panic when something goes wrong,' Ana concluded. 'And maybe that’s something people should think about before laughing at those who prepare.'Dr Sarita Robinson said her fellow 'preppers' on Facebook are 'right' and that the outage should be viewed as a 'real-world stress test for our emergency preparedness'. Dr Sarita, an associate dean in the school of psychology and humanities at the University of Lancashire, explained:’In survival psychology, we know that people do better in these types of situations when they have been proactive and put a Plan B in place.’Preppers on Facebook are right. The best time to prepare for an emergency is before it happens.' While it's impossible to prepare for every possible emergency, adopting a prepping mindset can be a 'helpful' starting point, she added. '[This means] thinking about what might go wrong and putting in simple, low-level interventions that could help if the worst happens – today’s events suggest we should add email outages to the things we should prep for.’ Professional middle-class Britons ‘bracing for doomsday’ took to Facebook to declare ‘and so it begins’ after the outage knocked out various platforms, including Outlook, in what has been dubbed the ‘most disruptive email-related business’ blackout of all time Asked what the country's biggest threat was, Ana previously told the Mail that cyber attacks were 'one of the most likely' dangers to Britain, given they could impact banks, supermarkets, electricity and water infrastructure too. 'But whatever potentially is going to happen, the preparedness advice and points are pretty much the same - we're talking about food, shelter and water, regardless of what happens. It's all similar.' She said her group, which boasts nearly 17,000 members, offered practical tips for those who wanted to go beyond the basic list of items to build stores.'People have to start somewhere, but they need a little more detail on what to do with the water, for example, how to divide it up between drinking, cooking, washing, even things like flushing a toilet.'Some people don't know what would happen if they can't flush the toilet, if there's no electricity, or no water comes out of the tap, or the water coming out is contaminated.'They're combing through the basic things, but being prepared is so much more than having the items. They're super important to know. Family planning in particular - what happens when - is essential.'The Microsoft outage began on Thursday night at 6pm GMT and rolled into Friday the 13th, before services were gradually restored after a 20-hour blackout. Despite the reams of jokes flooding the web, the Microsoft outage has caused serious headaches for services across the world – and the UK is no exception.The Government has been forced to put contingency plans in place while the NHS, which uses Microsoft's 365 suite, has been crippled as workers on the 111 helpline are unable to refer patients on.Some 25 out of 44 police force areas in Britain confirmed parts of their online services had been impacted by the Microsoft outage as of 11am this morning, according to research by Sky News.Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB union, told Sky News: 'This is creating a massive backlog and has the potential for chaos.'And the colossal tech crash has once again raised serious questions over why much of the world's infrastructure is now dependent on a handful of tech firms.Last month, a power issue at a Google Cloud data centre in London knocked banks including Revolut, HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds offline, delayed remote court hearings and disrupted Royal Mail's systems.An Amazon Web Services issue with DNS – effectively its address book of websites – in October 2025 saw banks, social media firms and the video game Fortnite taken offline for 15 hours.In 2024, a fatally corrupted update pushed out by cyber-security firm Crowdstrike crashed computers across the world used by airports, banks, broadcasters, retailers and governments.While Crowdstrike issued a fix for the issue in just over an hour, public services and infrastructure took days to recover because many computers knocked offline had to be restarted manually.More than a million air passengers had flights cancelled or delayed, Fortune 500 firms took an estimated £4.2billion hit, and it was, until today, the most disruptive global tech outage to date.Microsoft has not yet revealed the cause of the outage, but it is not thought that a malicious attack or a rogue agentic AI is to blame.Firms including ChatGPT's creator OpenAI have admitted that their artificial intelligence agents have previously broken into websites such as the AI repository Hugging Face and those belonging to the Australian government.The Outlook firm now says it is seeing 'encouraging recovery progress' on European servers and 'improving' performance in the US.However, it says that there could be issues for days after extending its 'email timeout window' – the timescale within which an email is expected to be received before it is abandoned – to 48 hours, double the usual period.With the effects of the outage stretching into a second day, people are looking for answers as to what went wrong.Tech industry analyst and journalist Ed Zitron – whose podcast is called, notably, Better Offline – wrote simply on X: 'What the f*** is going at Microsoft?'He added: 'It is completely insane that Outlook is still down. They should fire [CEO] Satya Nadella for this. They won't... but this is beyond inexcusable. How is it all day? Truly bonkers.'The day Microsoft crashed the world: Anger at 20-hour outage hitting hospitals, schools and police'We made fun of my mother, 83, for prepping but I finally realised she's got a point': Woman, 53, reveals essentials in her £50 'doomsday box' - including Dairy MilkDon't have time to stockpile? Worried Brits are buying £700 emergency food kits - with sales QUADRUPLING in recent weeksForget baked beans! Professional middle-class preppers reveal the smart alternatives you should REALLY stock up on for when disaster strikes