Microsoft outage disrupted services and exposed Britain’s reliance on US tech firms

Microsoft’s recent outage caused widespread disruption to email and other services, but its effects in Britain were mostly limited to inconvenience and interruptions at some public services. The columnist argues that the incident still matters because it exposed how dependent everyday life and critical organisations have become on a small number of US technology companies.

The article says a faulty line of code in a Microsoft update appears to have affected Outlook, Copilot and Teams, services used by hundreds of millions of people. Downdetector recorded a peak in reports at about 6.16pm UK time and logged 140,000 incidents across 74 countries; affected organisations included airlines, courts, schools, councils and GP surgeries. The article raises cyber-attacks and risks from AI as possible concerns, but does not establish either as the cause.