Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook and Teams across 74 countries

Microsoft is experiencing a prolonged global outage affecting Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 services since Thursday evening, with recovery efforts progressing slower than expected. The disruption has impacted users across at least 74 countries and territories. The outage primarily affects functions dependent on Exchange Online, including email, calendars, and contacts, while other Microsoft 365 components remain operational. Downdetector recorded nearly 140,000 reports at its peak, with businesses, governments, and educational institutions worldwide affected, including the U.S. House of Representatives. Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna stated the issue is not a cyberattack but resulted from servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable, straining remaining infrastructure. The company is restarting affected servers and rerouting traffic, though these measures have not yet yielded desired results.