Microsoft apologizes as global service outage stretches into second day

Microsoft issued an apology as a global outage affecting its email and office software services stretched into a second day, disrupting businesses and government agencies worldwide.

"We deeply apologize for the disruption this incident has caused to our customers and partners," the company said Thursday in a statement posted on X.

According to Reuters and other media reports, the outage began shortly after noon Thursday in the eastern United States, or around 2 a.m. Friday in South Korea.

The disruption affected more than 70 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, including government agencies such as the UK's House of Commons and New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as banks and other financial institutions, according to Reuters and Bloomberg.

Microsoft said its services were gradually recovering and ruled out cyberattacks or artificial intelligence agents as the cause.

The company said the problem was linked to an earlier expansion of its network capacity and was triggered by a recent network change. Microsoft said it had fixed the underlying issue, but some services had not yet fully recovered.

The outage disrupted workplaces across South Korea, forcing employees in various industries to find alternative ways to communicate as unfinished work piled up.

"Employees who needed to contact our business partners spent much of their time on the phone," a 27-year-old employee at an automaker told a local news outlet.

"So much work has been pushed back, and I'm already dreading the mountain of work waiting for me on Monday."

A 31-year-old human resources employee at a hotel and resort company described similar difficulties.

"We couldn't send internal announcements by email, so I had to visit workplaces in person," the employee said.