Microsoft denies malicious attack as Outlook outage persists globally

Microsoft reported no evidence of malicious activity behind the Outlook outage disrupting users worldwide for over half a day, though full service restoration remains incomplete after a software patch showed early signs of stability. The company traced the issue to elevated load on infrastructure across multiple regions, causing connectivity errors. By 0900 GMT, disruption reports on Downdetector had begun falling, but Microsoft has not specified when services will return to normal. The outage spread to 74 countries within an hour, affecting businesses, governments, and millions of users. Impacts included disrupted airline email support in India, suspended visa processing in New Zealand, and reported problems for UK health services and Australian agencies.