INCIDENT REPORT · CP-2026-016

Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online Global Outage

L3 · ELEVATEDCONFIRMEDNOT AN ATTACK

Beginning on Nov 12, 2026 (first acknowledged for users in the Americas), Exchange Online/Outlook failed for users worldwide, also disrupting Exchange-dependent features of Teams, SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 services into Nov 13. Microsoft said the cause was 'a technical issue not related to cyber or AI', introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade and surfacing after a later network change; a full post-incident report is pending.

Incident ID: CP-2026-016
Incident date: 12 NOV 2026
Detection date: 12 NOV 2026
Affected countries: United States
Plotted location: Redmond, United States (Affected service provider headquarters (Microsoft); impact was global)
Threat classification: Level 3 — ELEVATED
Classification rationale: Hours-long global loss of a core enterprise/government email platform across many sectors; non-malicious per Microsoft.
Attack type: Non-Malicious IT Failure
Nature: Non-malicious failure — not a cyberattack
Attack vector: Not publicly documented
Sectors: Technology
Critical infrastructure: No
Organizations affected: Microsoft
Operational consequences: Organizations worldwide lost or had degraded email access for many hours, with Downdetector logging well over 100,000 user reports; Microsoft extended its email timeout window to 48 hours to limit message loss. Microsoft reported services recovered on Nov 13.
Estimated financial impact: No reliably documented figure
Attribution (as stated): No official attribution recorded

SOURCE REFERENCES

RECORD CREATED 14 NOV 2026 · LAST UPDATED 14 NOV 2026 · Threat levels are editorial assessments, not official government ratings.

Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online Global Outage

L3 · ELEVATEDCONFIRMEDNOT AN ATTACK

Incident ID

CP-2026-016

Incident date

12 NOV 2026

Detection date

12 NOV 2026

Affected countries

United States

Plotted location

Redmond, United States (Affected service provider headquarters (Microsoft); impact was global)

Threat classification

Level 3 — ELEVATED

Classification rationale

Hours-long global loss of a core enterprise/government email platform across many sectors; non-malicious per Microsoft.

Attack type

Non-Malicious IT Failure

Nature

Non-malicious failure — not a cyberattack

Attack vector

Not publicly documented

Sectors

Technology

Critical infrastructure

Organizations affected

Microsoft

Operational consequences

Organizations worldwide lost or had degraded email access for many hours, with Downdetector logging well over 100,000 user reports; Microsoft extended its email timeout window to 48 hours to limit message loss. Microsoft reported services recovered on Nov 13.

Estimated financial impact

No reliably documented figure

Attribution (as stated)

No official attribution recorded