Microsoft apologises for global outage and rules out cyberattack

Microsoft sign outside its visitors centre at the company's headquarters in Redmond, USA, 9 November 2026. - Copyright © africanews Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Last updated: 37 minutes ago Microsoft Multinational technology corporation, Microsoft, has apologised for a global service outage that left millions of users unable to use its apps for more than 24 hours. It said on Saturday that service has been restored across Teams, Outlook, and its other products, ending the shutdown that crippled online communications for businesses, governments, and individual users. Microsoft said server issues were behind the incident that also affected its Copilot AI assistant, and that it was not aware of any malicious activity, ruling out a cyberattack as the cause. The outage prevented people from performing essential functions such as sending emails, managing calendars, and hosting virtual ​meetings. Organisations that host Microsoft services on their own servers, rather than in the cloud, were somewhat spared. The outage was one of the longest in software giant’s history and the second disruption to its services this year. The incident highlighted concerns about the world’s reliance on the company’s workplace software. You may also like