Microsoft 365 outage disrupts Dutch councils, courts and hospitals
A worldwide Microsoft 365 outage that began on Thursday afternoon has left email and online meetings down across the Netherlands, with councils, provinces, courts, hospitals and universities affected.
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Illustrative photo: lettinck / Pixabay Content LicenseMicrosoft 365 has been down worldwide since 17.15 on Thursday. Outlook, Teams and the Copilot AI tool are hit, so many people cannot read email or hold online meetings. Downdetector logged Microsoft service problems in 74 countries and territories. Microsoft 365 has more than 430 million users worldwide.
Dutch public bodies felt the effects as the working day began on Friday. The councils of Leeuwarden, Bergen and Twenterand say they are hard to reach by email or online. Barneveld says it can only be reached by phone. In Krimpen aan den IJssel, residents can still request products or services on the council website but get no confirmation email. The provinces of Noord-Holland and Groningen say they are harder to reach; Noord-Holland says it can be reached by phone. The judiciary (Rechtspraak) says courts often cannot send or receive email but can still be reached by phone.
“Microsoft 365 is dealing with an outage. Several services, including Outlook, are difficult to reach or not working properly. The Rechtspraak is also experiencing disruption from this. Email often cannot be received or sent. The courts are for the time being still reachable by phone.”
Hospitals including Dijklander, Amstelland and Noordwest Ziekenhuisgroep cannot receive or answer email. Rijnstate and Deventer Ziekenhuis say patient care is not affected. A Rijnstate spokesperson said: "The communication lines are down and that is inconvenient, but not dramatic." Radboud University and the University of Twente warned students of problems, and SURF, the network organisation for universities and colleges, is also hit.
“The province of Noord-Holland is less accessible by e-mail due to a global outage at Microsoft. If you have a question or message for the province, you can reach us by phone at 0800 - 020 0600 (free of charge).”
Pro MP Barbara Kathmann said the Tweede Kamer is not sending email today. "We are really lucky it's Friday," she said.
“Due to a disruption at Microsoft, we may be less easy to reach. As a result, it may take longer before you receive an answer from us. Microsoft is working on a solution. Thank you for your understanding.”
Microsoft blames increased load on its infrastructure after a number of servers became unexpectedly unavailable. It says it knows of no malicious activity behind the incident. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has received no reports of cyberattacks and only "a handful" of reports from affected organisations.
Around 10.30 on Friday Microsoft spoke of early signs of stabilisation, though Outlook, Teams and Copilot were still not working normally. Recovery progressed in the Asia-Pacific region, with work continuing elsewhere. Microsoft extended the email timeout window to 48 hours so delayed messages are not lost. It says it will share the root cause once the problem is solved.
In an update published at 13.00 Dutch time, Microsoft reported "encouraging progress with recovery in Europe", with more users able to use email again. It said the situation had become more stable in Japan and was improving in North America, but warned that users may still have problems while recovery work continues.
Stock exchange operator Euronext asked listed companies to phone rather than email when they pass on information.
Source: Provincie Noord-Holland, Rechtspraak, Provincie Groningen
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