What We Know About the Microsoft Outage
- Downdetector reports reached 74 countries and territories in about an hour, including a tenfold jump in the UK on Thursday evening.
- Businesses, banks, government offices, courts and airlines in several countries reported disruption to email and communications.
- Microsoft says there is no indication of malicious or cyber activity. It has compared the cause to an update that went wrong, similar to the 2024 CrowdStrike incident.
- Early on Friday, Microsoft reported “marginal success” in patching servers, followed by “positive results” for stability and capacity.
- Microsoft has promised a full Post-Incident Report once the issue is resolved.
What to Do Now
While service is disrupted
- Check Microsoft’s Service Health status page for official updates.
- Use phone calls or another channel for urgent communication.
- Let customers and suppliers know about any delays.
- Hold off on rebuilding or reinstalling anything, as this is a Microsoft service issue rather than a fault on your devices.
When service returns, watch for phishing
Criminals often use big outages to their advantage, and the risk can continue after Microsoft 365 is back. Expect a rise in emails such as:
- “Your account was affected, log back in” messages
- “Service restored” or “verify your account” emails with a link
- Fake password reset or security alerts
- Calls or messages from someone offering to fix your Microsoft problems
To stay safe:
- Go to Microsoft 365 through your usual bookmark or app, rather than clicking a link in an email.
- Treat emails that create urgency, or ask for a password or one-time code, with suspicion.
- Never give anyone remote access to your device unless you have checked who they are.
- Never approve a sign-in request you did not start.
- Report anything suspicious to your IT provider before you click.
- Expect a backlog of delayed emails, which may hide fake ones among the genuine messages.
Why Having IT Professionals Behind You Matters
An outage like this is a reminder that even the biggest providers can go down, and that businesses cope far better when an IT professional is already looking after their systems.
When a major service fails, we follow a clear process. We monitor Microsoft’s official updates, confirm whether our customers are affected, keep them informed and help them get back to normal once service returns. We also warn customers about the scams that tend to follow, so nobody has to work it out on their own.
Preparation is just as important. A good IT partner will help you:
- Plan how your team communicates if email or Teams is unavailable
- Keep your data protected and backed up outside a single provider
- Put clear steps in place so your team knows what to do, rather than waiting for updates
- Spot and report suspicious emails quickly after an incident
Talk to Sentinel About Outage
Want more information on how this outage affects your business, or help preparing for the next one? Speak to the Sentinel team. We can talk you through what happened, check your continuity and backup arrangements, and make sure you have professionals ready to support you when something goes wrong.
Speak to Sentinel or call 01202 028111.
I used the phone number from your backup design. Swap it if you’d like a different contact for this post. I also said “keep your data protected and backed up outside a single provider”, which assumes Sentinel offers backup for customers. If that isn’t part of the service, I can reword it to a general
