From faxes to phones, old-school technology makes a comeback during the Microsoft outage

Detailed summary

Disruption is the latest reminder of how much of the world’s commerce, public services and communications run on a handful of technology providers

Old-school technology including telephones, faxes and Bluetooth limited the damage for some people on Friday as a worldwide outage of Microsoft’s Outlook left millions without e-mail.

The prolonged disruption, which also hit Microsoft Teams and Copilot, affected some of the world’s biggest institutions, from bankers and traders to shipping firms.

While most reported their core systems were still running, trading and administrative work slowed in places in the latest reminder of how much of the world’s commerce, public services and communications run on a handful of technology providers.

“The pressure is mounting to invest in contingency plans and test whether those backups actually work when needed,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore, adding that firms needed multiple providers for key services like communication and data storage.

Microsoft scrambles to restore services as outage disrupts businesses and governments globally

Microsoft, which says on its website that more than 430 million people use its 365 services, blamed server problems and said it was not aware of any malicious activity.

The disruption comes weeks after attacks on the industrial systems that keep supermarket food cold and shows how a single point of failure, whether a technical fault, cyberattack or even an extreme weather event, can disrupt everyday business.

In its latest update on Friday, Microsoft said it was seeing signs of stabilization after implementing fixes more broadly to attain a persistent recovery of services.

European exchange operator Euronext, which runs bourses in Paris, Brussels, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Oslo, Athens and Milan, told listed companies to pick up the phone.

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