Microsoft Restores Services After Global Outage Disrupts 74 Countries

Microsoft has restored services following a major global outage that disrupted businesses and public services across dozens of countries.

The US-based technology company announced on Saturday that it had resolved the underlying issue and restored services for all remaining affected customers and regions.

“We have completed our efforts to address the underlying issue of the incident and restored service to the remaining impacted customers and regions,” Microsoft said in a post on X.

The announcement followed the company’s earlier report of a “broad recovery” in Outlook email and other services. Microsoft attributed the disruption to a technical issue and said it was not related to cyber activity or artificial intelligence agents.

Global Outage Affected 74 Countries

The outage began on Thursday and affected Microsoft products in at least 74 countries and territories across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, according to monitoring website Downdetector.

Microsoft said elevated load on its infrastructure caused the disruption.

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The incident affected several major services, including Outlook email, the Teams communication platform and the Copilot AI assistant.

The widespread disruption caused problems for businesses and public services that rely on Microsoft’s products for daily operations.

Microsoft Warns of Phishing Campaign

Meanwhile, Microsoft warned customers on Saturday about an active phishing campaign exploiting the outage.

The company said it had detected fraudulent emails on Friday that imitated official Microsoft service notifications.

The messages claimed that emails blocked during the disruption would be deleted unless recipients clicked a link to restore them.

Microsoft’s warning highlights the security risks that can emerge during major service disruptions, as attackers attempt to exploit customer confusion and uncertainty.