Microsoft outage affects banks, governments and courts in 74 countries and regions
Monitoring site Downdetector showed that Microsoft service outage reports covered 74 countries and regions within about one hour. The outage began on November 12, 2026, and continued to affect Microsoft 365 services such as Outlook, Teams and Copilot.
CNN reported that multiple banks, government agencies and courts were affected. Employees at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong said they were unable to use email and Teams normally; Japanese government officials said some services were disrupted and staff switched to paper documents; the Supreme Court of the Philippines said email and other matters could be delayed; schools, courts and government services in Australia also reported disruptions. Municipal governments in multiple U.S. cities also experienced email problems.
Microsoft said the outage was caused by increased infrastructure load and was not a cybersecurity incident. The company said repair progress had been limited, and some services had at one point shown signs of recovery, but overall they had not yet returned to normal. Peak Outlook problem reports recorded by Downdetector were close to 140,000.
Original sources:
Title: Microsoft outage live updates: Services including Outlook down globally
Publisher: CNN Business
Publication date: November 12 to 13, 2026
URL: cnn.com/2026/11/12/business/live-news/microsoft-global-outage-intl-hnk
Source type: media live coverage
Verification status: The original text was directly read, confirming the source of the data on 74 countries and the specific reports of impacts on banks, governments and courts
Supporting content: Downdetector records of reports from 74 countries and regions, as well as the affected situations at banks in Hong Kong, the Japanese government, and courts in the Philippines
ABAB AI Insight
The figure of 74 countries and regions comes from Downdetector user report statistics, reflecting the geographic distribution of problem reports rather than Microsoft’s official confirmation of the total number of affected users. The number of reports itself does not equal the actual number of users experiencing outages.
The impact on banks, governments and courts mainly appeared in disruptions to email and collaboration tools. CNN reported that bank employees in Hong Kong were unable to access email and Teams, Japanese government offices switched to paper-based processes, and the Supreme Court of the Philippines warned of email delays. These are specific feedback from institutions or employees rather than confirmation of a complete system-wide failure.
Microsoft attributed the cause to increased load on the remaining infrastructure after an unexpected server unavailability and ruled out malicious activity. The company said the remediation did not meet expectations, and even after partial recovery, problems could recur. Core services rely on Exchange Online, and the affected scope includes Outlook, Teams and Copilot.
Public information did not provide the number of affected institutions in each country, the duration of the disruption, or a complete list of fallback processes adopted. The 74-country figure and institution-level impacts need to be distinguished between report sources and the actual scope of business disruption.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
The number of countries covered by outage reports comes from user submissions on a third-party monitoring platform and does not equal the officially confirmed affected scope.
Disruptions to email and collaboration tools in banks, governments and courts directly affect daily communication and document flow.
Cascading unavailability caused by increased infrastructure load means some services may still be disrupted again during recovery.