Asda and Natwest hit as Microsoft outage sparks ‘bad day for UK PLC’

A global Microsoft outage disrupted British businesses, affecting communication, customer services and financial transactions. It highlighted the economic risks of relying heavily on a single technology provider, particularly when essential services fail at the same time.

Asda reported problems with online registrations, password resets and email changes, though its operations were later restored; NatWest and rail services were also affected. Microsoft said the disruption had spread to 74 countries, blamed servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable and reported no evidence of a cyberattack. The company was gradually restoring services, while analysts warned that delays could be costly and renew questions about resilience: Microsoft and Amazon Web Services together are estimated to hold 70 to 80 per cent of the UK public cloud market.