Skip to contentSwipe for next articleIndependent Bulletin homepageDownload our appAllNewsSportCultureLifestyleWant to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.Join todayAlready a member? Log inHolly WilliamsFriday 13 November 2026 10:03 GMTMicrosoft issues update as mass outage sparks cyber attack fearsMicrosoft has reported early signs of stabilisation following a major global outage that severely impacted access to key services including Outlook, Teams, Copilot AI and Microsoft 365 since late Thursday.The widespread disruption has affected government departments, banks, police forces, health services, and courts worldwide, with the UK Government confirming contingency plans are in place and police urging the public to call 101 or 999 for urgent reports.Outage monitoring website Downdetector recorded reports from users across 74 countries at its peak, with over 130,000 Outlook issues reported in the US alone and ongoing disruptions continuing in Europe and Asia on Friday.Microsoft executive vice-president Charles Lamanna confirmed that the incident does not appear to be the result of a cyber attack or malicious activity, as the company works with urgency on service stability and controlled recovery.To help protect delayed messages as service recovery continues, Microsoft has extended the email timeout window to 48 hours and committed to publishing a full post-incident report once mitigation is complete.In fullMicrosoft outage latest: Outlook and Teams down as company struggles to fix huge global outageMore bulletinsThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in