Microsoft Corp. has revealed that the recent outage of its Azure cloud services was triggered by a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which began early Tuesday morning.
According to Microsoft’s status update, the DDoS attack overwhelmed Azure cloud applications, and an error in the company’s automated defense mechanisms exacerbated the situation rather than mitigating it.
The attack caused disruptions across several regions, affecting various services, including Azure. For instance, Starbucks Corp. experienced significant issues with its mobile ordering system, which was rendered inoperable for several hours due to the Azure outage, as reported by sources familiar with the incident.
A DDoS attack floods a website with massive amounts of internet traffic to disrupt or shut it down. These attacks have increasingly troubled financial institutions, leading to intermittent downtime and forcing IT teams to fend off the onslaught.
User reports compiled by Downdetector showed a surge in outage complaints for Azure and Microsoft 365 services beginning shortly after 7 a.m. in New York. The volume of complaints peaked at hundreds. Microsoft confirmed that the problem was resolved by approximately 5 p.m. New York time.
The outage also impacted various Microsoft 365 applications, including Outlook, Word, and Excel. Starbucks had largely restored its mobile ordering services by about 1 p.m. in New York, although some minor disruptions persisted, according to a spokesperson.
This incident follows a recent event earlier in the month where a flawed software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. caused crashes on approximately 8 million Windows computers. Additionally, Microsoft is still dealing with the aftermath of several cyberattacks, which led to a critical report from the US government urging significant changes within the company.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted advancements in the company’s cybersecurity measures during a Tuesday conference call, following the quarterly earnings report. Nadella emphasized the company’s commitment to security, noting that Microsoft now has over 1.2 million security customers.
“We continue to prioritize security above all else,” Nadella affirmed.
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