{
  "id": 19792828,
  "title": "Microsoft says there is 'no evidence of malicious activity' being the cause of the global service outage affecting governments and organisations around the world",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-says-there-is-no-evidence-of-malicious-activity-being-the",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-13T10:33:22.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PC Gamer",
    "slug": "pc-gamer",
    "url": "https://www.pcgamer.com/software/security/microsoft-says-there-is-no-evidence-of-malicious-activity-being-the-cause-of-the-global-service-outage-affecting-governments-and-organisations-around-the-world/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Recent global service outage affecting various governments and organizations is attributed to no malicious activity by Microsoft. Down Detector reported issues with Microsoft 365 services starting around 12:30 pm (ET) on November 12, with problems continuing. Countries worldwide, including the UK and US governments, experienced disruptions, with the NHS unable to access patient consultations online. Microsoft identified problems with Exchange Online, impacting features like calendars, tasks, emails, and more. Affected services span across multiple platforms such as MS365 admin center, apps, education features, and various Microsoft tools. Microsoft stated that recovery actions are ongoing, with incremental improvements in several services, but overall service health remains variable, and baseline capacity has not yet been restored. Network and traffic management measures are in place to protect email communications during recovery, and queue processing has been prioritized, extending the email timeout window to 48 hours. No evidence of malicious activity has been detected, but Microsoft emphasizes continued urgency in their efforts until full mitigation and will provide a comprehensive post-incident report once complete.",
  "summary": "A bunch of governments, state institutions, and companies are affected globally.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 9,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "CNBC Technology",
        "title": "Widespread Microsoft outage takes down Outlook and other 365 services",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/12/widespread-microsoft-outage-takes-down-outlook-and-other-365-services",
        "published": "2026-11-12T22:11:54.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Sky News Tech",
        "title": "Microsoft suffers global outage - as fix not going 'as expected'",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-suffers-global-outage-as-fix-not-going-as-expected",
        "published": "2026-11-13T04:33:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Dev.to",
        "title": "Microsoft 365 went down (and took the Defender portal with it): the admin checklist for the next outage",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-365-went-down-and-took-the-defender-portal-with-it-the",
        "published": "2026-11-13T04:38:33.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "TechCentral",
        "title": "Microsoft outage hits the world",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-outage-hits-the-world",
        "published": "2026-11-13T05:50:05.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Computerworld",
        "title": "Microsoft struggles to get M365 services back online after widespread outage",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-struggles-to-get-m365-services-back-online-after-widespread",
        "published": "2026-11-13T07:00:39.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "TechSpot",
        "title": "Microsoft struggles to restore Outlook, Teams, and other services as global outage enters second day",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-struggles-to-restore-outlook-teams-and-other-services-as",
        "published": "2026-11-13T10:15:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "BBC Technology",
        "title": "How the Microsoft outage has been felt worldwide",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/how-the-microsoft-outage-has-been-felt-worldwide",
        "published": "2026-11-13T11:05:10.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Jerusalem Post Tech & Start-Ups",
        "title": "Microsoft outage hits users worldwide: What went wrong, why is cyberattack ruled out? - explainer",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/microsoft-outage-hits-users-worldwide-what-went-wrong-why-is",
        "published": "2026-11-13T11:06:51.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}