Microsoft Hit By Second Major Outage in Two Weeks Due to DDoS Attack

Microsoft was hit by its second major service disruption in less than two weeks. The tech giant attributed the latest incident to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack that overwhelmed its systems on Tuesday.

The outage, lasting nearly 10 hours, impacted a wide range of services including Office, Outlook, Azure, and parts of Microsoft 365 and Purview. Numerous businesses, including UK bank NatWest, were affected by the disruption.

Unlike the previous outage caused by a CrowdStrike antivirus update, Microsoft confirmed this incident was a deliberate attack aimed at flooding its network with traffic. However, the company admitted that an error in its DDoS protection system amplified the attack’s impact rather than mitigating it.

This recurring issue has raised concerns about the resilience of Microsoft’s infrastructure and its ability to safeguard against both internal errors and external threats. The company has promised a detailed investigation into the incident.