Microsoft 365 services restored after outage, DNS issue to blame

Microsoft 365 services have been restored after outage [Image: Reuters]

Microsoft's 365 service saw a brief outage that left users unable to access 365 services and features. 365 is the rebranded office suite that includes apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access available for both home and enterprise users.

The Redmond giant has now fixed the issue and has confirmed that all services for 365 have now returned to a healthy state. The problem was caused by a DNS issue and was fixed by rerouting traffic to alternate DNS servers.

Surprisingly the outage also seemed to extend to Microsoft Azure Cloud Services and several Xbox accounts also seemed to be affected. Microsoft Teams, a work collaboration tool for offices also saw problems during the outage.

Microsoft has been having a hell of a time with some of its services lately. Its Microsoft Exchange servers were in the eye of the storm when a vulnerability led to many organisations getting hacked.

Prominent companies like Acer fell victim to the Exchange exploit with their files being held for ransom to a tune of $50 million, the largest ransomware demand to date. Things got so bad that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) instructed the US government agencies that used Exchange to run malware scans and vulnerability tests.