Microsoft struggles to fully restore 365 services after global network failure

Efforts to resolve a major global Microsoft 365 outage continued into Friday as engineers worked to stabilize affected infrastructure. Disruptions began on Thursday evening, impacting Outlook, Teams, Word, and Copilot services across more than 70 countries.

Microsoft confirmed that the blackout resulted from an internal technical failure rather than a cyberattack. Officials explained that a process handling secure connections became overwhelmed under heavy traffic, rendering servers unresponsive. Although technical teams have begun reversing recent network changes, deploying configuration updates, and restarting hardware, full recovery remains slow. The company reported that returned servers initially became unresponsive again once traffic resumed, prompting engineers to prioritize critical sectors such as life, safety, and government services during the restoration process.

Sources: The Guardian, The Herald, STV News, Cyprus Mail, BBC News