Germany’s Cybersecurity Bureau is investigating a global Microsoft outage that left millions without access to their Outlook email and Teams messaging app this morning.
The country’s interior ministry said its cybersecurity officials are investigating the scope and culprits behind the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, reports Portal.
The first issues were reported just before 7 a.m., and Microsoft said around 9 a.m. that they had narrowed the issue down to a “network configuration issue” that they were trying to fix without having “additional impact” on users.
They later added that they “reverted” a change to their network that they believed was having an impact.
The problem left millions of people working in the office or at home without access to email, causing chaos for many – although the problem appeared to be partially resolved before 9am.
Twitter was awash with complaints, with one person asking, “Is @Outlook down for everyone or am I the only one having a stressful start to the day???”
Millions of people were left without email this morning after a global outage of Microsoft Outlook and Teams
Twitter was awash with complaints, with one person asking, “Is @Outlook down for everyone or am I the only one having a stressful start to the day???”
Microsoft said on its status page around 10 a.m. that it had determined that a “wide-area networking (WAN) routing change” was causing the problems.
It added: “Some of the customers who previously reported impact are also reporting a recovery.”
A WAN is a large network that can facilitate communication, information sharing, and more between devices around the world.
The biggest thing, of course, is the internet itself.
If there were no WAN links, businesses would be isolated to restricted areas or specific geographic regions.
As businesses grow and become international, WANs allow them to communicate between branches, share information and stay connected.
Employees can access information they need to do their jobs when working from home or traveling to work, while we also rely on WANs to communicate, bank and shop online.
They previously said on their status page and on Twitter that this was due to an internal change in their infrastructure.
They said: “We have rolled back a network change that we believe is having an impact.
“We are monitoring the service while the rollback takes effect.”
It had initially said just after 7.30am that it was “investigating” the outage issues.
Microsoft 365 is the company’s name for its suite of programs and services, which also includes Microsoft Office applications like Word and Excel, and the Teams communications platform.
The Microsoft services affected by the “Network configuration” issue
-Microsoft Teams
-Online exchange
-Outlook
-SharePoint Online
-OneDrive for business
-Microsoft graph
-PowerBi
-M365 Management Portal
-Microsoft Intune
-Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and Microsoft Defender for Identity
Teams is used by nearly 300 million people around the world, and many businesses and schools rely on it for calls, meetings, and general organization.
The company said it has received reports that its OneDrive cloud storage facility, SharePoint Online service and Microsoft Graph are also experiencing issues.
Jake Moore, a cybersecurity specialist, warned that the issue highlights how organizations should be prepared and have contingency plans in place if critical programs fail.
He told Web: “These outages are increasing in volume due to the sheer number of more online users and traffic.
“Many quickly suspect a cyber attack, but that often adds to the confusion. It underscores the importance of these ministries and the millions of people they serve.
“Enterprises need to test their infrastructure and have multiple failovers in place, no matter the size of the organization.
“But as is so often the case, it’s simply impossible to simulate the size and scale of the problem in a safe environment without testing the actual network.”
According to downdetector.co.uk, a website that tracks outages across tech and mobile platforms, more than 4,800 users reported problems just before 8am.
The first outage report for Outlook was filed just before 07:00 GMT this morning and the number quickly grew to thousands.
The first outage report for Outlook was filed just before 07:00 GMT this morning and the number quickly grew to thousands
Microsoft said on its status page and on Twitter around 9:30 a.m.: “We have reverted a network change that we believe is having an impact. “We are monitoring the service while the rollback takes effect.”
Some Twitter users are overjoyed at the surprise “day off” they were granted as they were unable to do their work due to the lack of access to the applications
However, at the last count just before 10:30 a.m., the number of problem reports had dropped to 158.
Another user said on Twitter that the connection in his team meeting was so bad it was like “everyone is using dial-up”.
Others were overjoyed with the surprise “day off” as they were unable to get work done due to lack of access to the applications.
One Twitter user said, “What are we going to do on our day off now that Outlook and Teams aren’t working?”
Some Twitter users saw the funny side of the Microsoft outages that affected millions of users
Another said they had her “cooking and washing done”.
However, other users took to social media to say they had no problems.
In one meme, one joked, “If you read on Twitter that Teams and Outlook are down but it’s working fine for you.”
Optician Specsavers tweeted: “Thoughts to everyone who logged in to see their Teams and Outlook working perfectly this morning”.
Reports of problems with the Microsoft tool suite came in from India earlier this morning.
More updates are expected soon from the tech giant.
Last June, Outlook was beset by issues that made it inaccessible for some users.
It comes after Microsoft yesterday reported a 12 percent drop in profit over the past three months, just days after laying off 10,000 employees last week.
The company reported earnings of $16.43 billion for the quarter ended December, while revenue rose 2 percent to $52.7 billion, marking Microsoft’s slowest revenue growth in six years.
The company had blamed deteriorating economic conditions and “changing customer priorities” for its decision to cut nearly 5 percent of its global workforce
More than 4,885 users have reported problems with Microsoft programs, according to downdetector.co.uk, a website that tracks outages on technical platforms and mobile networks