What caused the Microsoft outage and how can they prevent another one? | Global News Podcast

This is the global news podcast from the. BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte. Gallagher and today, what caused the. Microsoft outage and how can we prevent. it in the future? Thousands and maybe. millions of users were left without. access to their email, calendar, and. chat programs on Friday. We'll ask our. tech reporter how it happened. They've. stressed this isn't a cyber attack. This. is essentially uh what happens when. servers have dropped offline. and ask a. cyber security expert what to do next.

>> We need that contingency not just with. servers but with other forms of. communication as well. >> Plus, is there a hidden benefit to being. digitally disconnected? >> The mental health benefits of unplugging. from technology in its entirety are are. numerous. People around the world started the day. in disarray on Friday as a massive. outage left them without access to. Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Copilot.

Schools, banks, health services, and. businesses in dozens of countries were. affected. As we record this, Microsoft. says there are signs its services are. stabilizing, but they've still not. returned to normal. Our technology. reporter, Laura Crest, has been. following the outage all day. It is. moving in the in the right direction, but it is a it's a very slow stepbystep. fix. It has been now more than 20 hours. that we've had this outage, but some. people uh may see that they're starting. to slowly get their emails back uh for.

Outlook. Um and and the reason it has. taken so long is that engineers they've. hit this quite frustrating loop where. essentially they would restart a server. and let some people back in but the. sudden rush of all that returning. traffic that overwhelms the system and. then it knocks it offline again. So. instead of flipping a big switch that. essentially they're letting traffic. traffic back in but it's very slow. So. that's why it is taking a long time. They're trying to prevent another crash.

>> And I'm sure people listening will be. interested to know whether this will. happen again and how to prevent it. happening again. >> Yeah, it's a it's a good question. I I. think it's inevitable that we may well. see something like this again. I'm sure. Microsoft what it's going to do is it's. tighten it its checks to stop these. servers from uh tripping over each other. again. Um but you know, experts will be. sort of asking are you going to have a. plan B for this for next time? because. it it seemed that this was something. that seemed to be quite unexpected when.

it happened. Uh you know they've. stressed this isn't a cyber attack. This. is essentially uh what happens when. servers have dropped offline uh during. routine checks. Uh but too much digital. traffic has been dumped onto the. remaining servers and and overloaded. them. That that's basically what has. happened here. But um yeah, it's. essential really that we never have this. kind of huge scale outage again because. uh it really has caused so much. disruption today. So, how vulnerable are. we to this type of problem and what can. be done about it? We asked cyber.

security adviser Jake Moore. >> It's not the first time. We only had a a. huge outage last month that took out a. bank and some people who didn't have. access to other banks couldn't get. access to their money. So, it really is. huge. And Microsoft, it sits at the. heart of so many businesses. And with. that in mind, disruption is absolutely. huge. And we're not seemingly learning. from the amount of data that this world. is in need of. We're a data hungry world. and it's only exploding. And this.

elevated load that they talk about is. just one of those examples that we're. going to see more and more in the future. that's going to pass through the heart. of so many businesses. And when they are. working perfectly, no one really thinks. about it. But when a portion of these. servers have a failure, the traffic has. to go elsewhere and it has to go through. the remaining computers and that's what. slows everything down. So we need to. have resilience. And in this case, resilience basically means load more. servers. And with such a data hungry.

world that we're now living in, just. think of the amount of data AI is using. uh even though there's nothing to do. with AI here that we can see yet but the. amount of data that we're using we need. more space and we need more server space. to look after it and so we are. incredibly dependent though on these. particular uh giants and that seems to. be where one of the issues is so we need. that contingency not just with servers. but with other forms of communication as. well very difficult to simulate this uh.

because we do that with cyber security. attacks it's difficult to simulate. failures like this one today. So we need. to have that uh important backup. Uh we. talk about backups all the time but in. terms of this level of say communication. the backup may be moving to other. platforms WhatsApp uh um Slack and other. forms even the old traditional phone. line that can get us all back up and. running a little bit better but really. we have to expect maybe some more like. this in the future because this is. potentially a sign of what's to come.

Social media has been full of posts. celebrating the Microsoft outage as a. chance to take a break from work. But. Friday has also been a stressful day for. people who depend on Outlook email and. calendar to run their businesses, meet. their work deadlines, and organize their. personal lives. A moment ago, you heard. about the importance of digital. resilience, but what about personal. resilience? Lucy Ranger is a mindfulness. teacher. So I suppose the first thing to.

really think about is what is within our. control and what is not. And often our. stress response system is activated by. lots of things that are really. frustrating, stressful that are. completely outside of our control. And. they happen on a daily basis. It could. be something like a traffic jam or. something not arriving when we want it. to. And obviously something like what's. happened today is on a much bigger scale. and it could impact businesses really. greatly, but it's still something that's.

outside of our control. And so to sit in. the kind of stress of it all when. there's not actually anything we can do. about it is really not very helpful for. us. And so I suppose the key thing is to. see if we can bring some awareness to. what can I do versus what is just. completely beyond my ability to do. anything about. >> What steps or actions can people take to. feel less stressed? Do you have any that. you use yourself? Yeah, I mean obviously.

we meditate to practice it is a bit like. going to the gym for your head, but. essentially the the concepts are. something everyone can understand that. if we can realize the fightlight. response which I think lots of people. are familiar with is activated when. stresses happen but it's meant for real. kind of danger for us to run away or to. fight something off and so being aware. of these subtle changes that happen. physically.

can be really useful. So if we notice. actually gripping my jaw or my heart has. started to race a lot or you know that. feeling of agitation. being able to get a bit of perspective. on the fact that this physiological. stuff is happening. Um can we kind of. firstly maybe take a step away from the. desk? You know physically a marching. walk around the block would really help. get that adrenaline out of the system. Um, but what we need is some kind of.

perspective to be able to choose. Okay, what is possible? I know I'm activated. Is it helpful is always my question. Who's suffering when there's nothing we. can do? So then what can we do that. would be helpful right now? And it may. be that we find other ways around. working with no emails or we choose to. do something completely different with. our time. But I think everyone can. probably recognize that being in the. frustration and and and stress of it all.

isn't the most helpful thing we can do. with our time. >> And of course, we don't want to minimize. the impact of a massive outage like. this, but are there any benefits to. disconnecting from email? >> Absolutely. And I mean, I I worked in a. corporate environment for many years pre. being able to have your emails with you. And when I got my first BlackBerry, there was something like, "Oh, wow. Amazing. We can always be on." But we've. never turned off since that day. You. know, we are completely plugged in. I.

always say that we we experience a level. of stress not experienced in previous. generations because we are on 24/7. We. can go shopping at 3:00 in the morning. online and we're plugged into work the. entire time. We know that silence and. that means like all background noise off. is profoundly beneficial for our brain, our mental health, let alone just taking. away the stress of constantly being on.

for our work environment, being. contacted at any time and feeling like. we have to respond. The mental health. benefits of unplugging from technology. in its entirety are are numerous. There's loads. But we physically need. it. Our brains need to not be in flight. fight or flight mode continuously. It we. need the opposite what we know uh as. rest and digest mode. It's the. parasympathetic nervous system as. opposed to the sympathetic nervous.

system which is fight or flight. We need. them in balance again. And the only way. we're going to do that is to rest but. not to rest whilst planning the rest of. our day. to really be in a restful state. that's in the present moment, which is. what mindfulness meditation helps us to. to learn to do. And that's all for now, but there is. much more on the day's main stories in. the audio version of the Global News. podcast, wherever you get your podcast. If you'd like to get in touch, the.

contact details are below. I'm Charlotte. Gallagher. Until next time, goodbye.