Faxes, phones and Bluetooth: Microsoft outage forces businesses to find fixes

A global Microsoft outage left millions without Outlook email on Friday, also disrupting Teams and Copilot. Although most organisations said their core systems remained operational, some trading and administrative work slowed, highlighting how dependence on a small number of technology providers can affect businesses and public services.

Microsoft, which says more than 430 million people use its 365 services, attributed the disruption to server problems and said it had no evidence of malicious activity. Firms fell back on phone calls, fax and Bluetooth: Euronext told listed companies to call, Aviva used Bluetooth to transfer recordings, and some Taiwanese financial trades were confirmed by fax. Microsoft said services were showing signs of stabilisation after it expanded its fixes.