The only tech story going right now other than Jenson Huang who used to be with Nvidia is the great Microsoft outage as I am calling it. So many organizations use Microsoft products, there’s a very good chance that a lot of organizations are affected.
Here’s what we know at 8:30 AM EST:
- A huge range of Microsoft 365 products were down. That includes Exchange email (which includes Outlook.com and Hotmail), Microsoft Outlook, Teams and Copilot.
- There are also reports of Planner, To Do, administrative tools such as InTune, and some SharePoint functions being affected.
Microsoft has had problems brining things online. But as of an hour ago, Microsoft said this:
I have personally heard that personal email such as outlook.com is still not working. But corporate email seems to be starting to come back online. That I suppose is progress. But you should bet on Microsoft tools of any sort not being back to normal today. So you should structure your business accordingly.
Also of note:
- Microsoft has increased the email timeout window to 48 hours to help protect delayed messages while backlogs clear. So that suggests to me that normal service may not return until the end of the weekend.
- There has been no malicious activity that Microsoft admits to.
That does raise a few questions. Everybody and their dog it seems uses a Microsoft product to conduct business. Seeing as we’re stretching into a business day with no resolution of this issue, will organizations reconsider their use of Microsoft products because of this? And what will Microsoft do to placate all these angry organizations?
I guess we’re about to find out.
UPDATE: Mario de Cicco, VP, European Financial Institutions, Morningstar DBRS said this on the great Microsoft outage:
“The Microsoft outage could result in a number of insurance claims, mostly related to businesses experiencing financial losses, operational disruptions, and delays in serving customers. However, not all businesses will automatically be entitled to compensation, as this depends on the terms and conditions of their insurance policies. Some cyber insurance policies only cover losses caused by malicious cyberattacks, whereas the Microsoft outage appears to have resulted from a technical failure rather than a deliberate attack. Additionally, some policies include waiting periods before business interruption cover becomes effective.
The 2024 CrowdStrike outage is a useful comparison. The issue was caused by a faulty software update that affected around 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide. It disrupted major industries, including airlines, hospitals, banks, and retailers, and caused flight cancellations, business interruptions, financial losses, and delays in services that generated insurance claims. The CrowdStrike had a significant global impact—according to CyberCube, it generated insurance losses between USD 400 million and USD 1.5 billion. Although currently less severe, if the Microsoft outage continues for several days, it could become equally serious or potentially worse.
Both outages highlight the credit and operational risks that insurance companies face from their growing reliance on concentrated technology providers and server infrastructures, the consequences of which are difficult to predict. The ultimate impact on claims will be determined by the scope of policy coverage, and insurers’ responses will depend on the waiting period, deductibles, sublimits, and exclusions. Economic losses outside of policy terms and conditions will be borne by businesses.
In our view, the overall credit impact of the Microsoft outage on insurers is likely to be limited, with global insured losses estimates at USD 300 million to USD 500 million, well below the CrowdStrike outage estimates. This reflects the potentially limited coverage under existing cyber policies and exclusions for nonmalicious tech failures. However, this remains a preliminary estimate given the ongoing nature of the outage and the uncertainty surrounding its ultimate duration and overall impact.”
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This entry was posted on November 13, 2026 at 8:36 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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What We Know About The Great Microsoft Outage
The only tech story going right now other than Jenson Huang who used to be with Nvidia is the great Microsoft outage as I am calling it. So many organizations use Microsoft products, there’s a very good chance that a lot of organizations are affected.
Here’s what we know at 8:30 AM EST:
Microsoft has had problems brining things online. But as of an hour ago, Microsoft said this:
I have personally heard that personal email such as outlook.com is still not working. But corporate email seems to be starting to come back online. That I suppose is progress. But you should bet on Microsoft tools of any sort not being back to normal today. So you should structure your business accordingly.
Also of note:
That does raise a few questions. Everybody and their dog it seems uses a Microsoft product to conduct business. Seeing as we’re stretching into a business day with no resolution of this issue, will organizations reconsider their use of Microsoft products because of this? And what will Microsoft do to placate all these angry organizations?
I guess we’re about to find out.
UPDATE: Mario de Cicco, VP, European Financial Institutions, Morningstar DBRS said this on the great Microsoft outage:
“The Microsoft outage could result in a number of insurance claims, mostly related to businesses experiencing financial losses, operational disruptions, and delays in serving customers. However, not all businesses will automatically be entitled to compensation, as this depends on the terms and conditions of their insurance policies. Some cyber insurance policies only cover losses caused by malicious cyberattacks, whereas the Microsoft outage appears to have resulted from a technical failure rather than a deliberate attack. Additionally, some policies include waiting periods before business interruption cover becomes effective.
The 2024 CrowdStrike outage is a useful comparison. The issue was caused by a faulty software update that affected around 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide. It disrupted major industries, including airlines, hospitals, banks, and retailers, and caused flight cancellations, business interruptions, financial losses, and delays in services that generated insurance claims. The CrowdStrike had a significant global impact—according to CyberCube, it generated insurance losses between USD 400 million and USD 1.5 billion. Although currently less severe, if the Microsoft outage continues for several days, it could become equally serious or potentially worse.
Both outages highlight the credit and operational risks that insurance companies face from their growing reliance on concentrated technology providers and server infrastructures, the consequences of which are difficult to predict. The ultimate impact on claims will be determined by the scope of policy coverage, and insurers’ responses will depend on the waiting period, deductibles, sublimits, and exclusions. Economic losses outside of policy terms and conditions will be borne by businesses.
In our view, the overall credit impact of the Microsoft outage on insurers is likely to be limited, with global insured losses estimates at USD 300 million to USD 500 million, well below the CrowdStrike outage estimates. This reflects the potentially limited coverage under existing cyber policies and exclusions for nonmalicious tech failures. However, this remains a preliminary estimate given the ongoing nature of the outage and the uncertainty surrounding its ultimate duration and overall impact.”
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This entry was posted on November 13, 2026 at 8:36 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.