Microsoft Azure Outage Sparks Cybersecurity Concerns

A global outage of Microsoft's Azure cloud services on Tuesday, affecting platforms from Outlook to Starbucks' mobile app, was caused by a distributed denial of service attack. An error in Azure's defense amplified the impact. The issue lasted nearly eight hours and affected multiple services globally.

A global Microsoft Azure outage on Tuesday disrupted a variety of services, from Outlook emails to Starbucks' mobile app orders. The tech giant attributed the incident to a distributed denial of service cyberattack, exacerbated by an error in Azure's defense mechanisms.

Microsoft Azure, a widely-used cloud computing platform, confirmed the attack and noted that the error likely amplified the outage's impact. Services for select Azure, Microsoft 365, and Purview customers were down for nearly eight hours, starting at approximately 11:45 am UTC (7:45 am EST).

The outage impacted a range of users, including Minecraft players, Dutch football club FC Twente, and the U.K. government's HM Courts and Tribunals Service. Many reported workarounds or restoration of services within hours. Microsoft plans to release a preliminary post-incident report within 72 hours.

(With inputs from agencies.)