A global technology outage affecting Microsoft services entered its second day on Friday leaving millions of users and organizations across more than 70 countries dealing with disruptions to Outlook, Teams, and Copilot while the company works to restore full infrastructure.
Microsoft confirmed that there are no indications of a cyberattack or malicious activity behind the widespread service disruption. Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of Copilot, Agents, and Platforms at Microsoft, stated on X, “For now, I can confirm that there are no indications that this is the result of malicious or cyber activity” according to La Vanguardia.
The technical failure originated around 19:00 Spanish time on Thursday, November 12, 2026, according to La Vanguardia, and impacted a wide range of essential digital tools.
We regret that today’s outages caused disruptions for our customers, and we are working to address the issue. We will continue to share more information as soon as we have it, and for now I can confirm that there is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity.
Exchange Online, SharePoint, and Defender XDR also experienced problems, alongside Microsoft 365 connections utilized by artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as reported by La Vanguardia and abc.es. Downdetector registered an incoming peak of nearly 140,000 reports for Outlook from more than 70 countries, according to Diario ABC.
Public administration, banking, transportation, and health systems experienced operational strain internationally. In the United Kingdom, NHS England reported that the breakdown affected staff communications, prompting local health services to activate contingency protocols that included utilizing alternative systems and paper documentation where possible, according to Diario ABC. In the Asia-Pacific region, government agencies, courts, and banks encountered interruptions, with agencies in Singapore and Australia—including the Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales service platform Service NSW—reporting affected operations, according to La Vanguardia.
Additionally, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that its email receiving capacity was disrupted across global embassies and consulates, while Japan’s Minister of Economy, Ryosei Akazawa, warned of significant impacts in local media, according to Diario ABC. Sam Mubb, chief executive officer of British software firm Bytes Technology, remarked on the situation, stating according to La Vanguardia, “Microsoft has confirmed that this is a technical failure, not a cyberattack.”
More than 18 hours after the initial failures, Microsoft reported progress in recovery efforts across Europe and North America, though the company cautioned that intermittent issues and residual latency remain across affected infrastructure. To prevent delayed messages from being permanently lost during server restoration, Microsoft extended email delivery wait times to 48 hours, according to La Vanguardia and elcomercio.pe.
Through its official Microsoft 365 Status account on X, the company explained that recovery teams continue addressing machines stuck in defective states that prevent synchronization. Users and administrators can monitor ongoing updates through the Microsoft 365 admin center under identifier MO1550821 or via the Microsoft 365 Status service portal, according to Diario ABC and elcomercio.pe.
