Some Singapore government systems affected by Microsoft outage: GovTech
Emergency services remain fully operational, said the agency.
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SINGAPORE: Some government systems have been affected by the ongoing Microsoft disruption, said the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) on Friday (Nov 13).
Microsoft Outlook suffered a major hours-long outage across the world on Thursday, with tens of thousands of users struggling to access their email. Other company products such as Teams and the AI assistant Copilot were also affected.
In a statement to CNA, GovTech said the disruption was affecting government systems, including email.
"Emergency services remain fully operational and can be reached at 995 and 999 as usual," it said, adding that Singpass was not affected.
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"For updates on e-services, please check the relevant agency’s official website or social media channels. The email disruption may delay responses to enquiries. For urgent matters, members of the public can contact the agency through other channels, such as its call centre."
The agency said public officers could continue to use Microsoft Teams for internal communications.
"We will provide further updates when more information is available," it said.
WORKERS AFFECTED
With the disruption still ongoing after about 10 hours, Microsoft users in Singapore told CNA they faced difficulties communicating with overseas colleagues, responding to emails and attending meetings.
Jane Wong said she was unable to access Outlook and Copilot, leaving her unable to update standard operating procedures. However, SharePoint and Teams were still working for her, allowing her to continue preparing reports.
For Simon Ong, the disruption meant having to rearrange meetings with suppliers and change his plans. He decided to head to Starbucks for a latte to de-stress.
Meanwhile, Miyuki Siew said Teams was unaffected for her, and she was still able to attend meetings as usual.
Microsoft attributed the disruption to the "elevated load" on its infrastructure and said it was "aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact".
In the latest update on its service health page, the company said it was observing partial recovery in services across the regions where it had applied its latest efforts to fix the issue.
"We’re continuing our efforts to improve server stability to improve traffic flow. This includes adjusting traffic protocols, redistributing traffic, and applying strategic traffic blocking measures," it said.
"However, these actions aren’t resulting in sustained recovery, so we’re reviewing what additional actions we can take to improve overall infrastructure stability."
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