No sign of cyberattack, says Microsoft exec as outage snares OpenAI, Anthropic and even Australia’s spy agency

Singapore, November 13 — Microsoft's executive vice president, Charles Lamanna, has stated that there is no evidence to suggest the ongoing service outage on Friday (November 13) was caused by malicious cyber activity. In a post on X around 11:40 am, Lamanna apologized for the disruptions caused to customers and assured that the company is actively working to resolve the issue.

As of 1:46 pm, Microsoft confirmed that engineers are pursuing several workstreams to determine the root cause of the surge in traffic. Initially, the company attributed the disruption to "elevated load" on its infrastructure across multiple regions. Microsoft is adopting a cautious approach to identify and repair affected servers to ensure the implemented changes work as intended.

The impact of the outage extends to numerous businesses and public services worldwide, with tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic among those reporting problems. Services like Teams, Outlook, and Copilot have experienced "connectivity issues" due to the outage. Beyond businesses, governments such as Australia's spy agency and federal police, as well as the US House of Representatives, have also reported disruptions.

The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) noted that the outage may affect responses to email inquiries but assured residents that emergency services are fully operational.