Microsoft outage hits 74 countries, disrupting services and raising EU tech reliance concerns

A major Microsoft server failure has disrupted Outlook, Teams, and other services across 74 countries for over a day, affecting governments, healthcare, and businesses. Microsoft denies a cyber attack but has not identified a root cause. The outage began Thursday afternoon European time, with fixes failing overnight as servers crashed again under returning traffic. Downdetector logged nearly 140,000 issues on Outlook alone, with SharePoint, Defender XDR, Planner, and To Do also affected. UK GP practices, Singapore's government, and Australia's intelligence agency reported knock-on effects. Microsoft initially blamed "elevated load" but clarified that servers became "unexpectedly unavailable," possibly due to faulty automated health checks. No data theft is indicated, though weakened security monitoring and potential scam emails pose indirect risks. The incident fuels European concerns about reliance on US tech giants, with experts urging backup systems and offline preparedness.