Microsoft Outage Revives Fax Use in Japan’s Financial Sector

Microsoft’s global outage pushed parts of Japan’s financial sector to use fax machines after Outlook, used to confirm trade details, stopped working. The disruption also affected Teams, SharePoint and Copilot worldwide, with Downdetector logging up to 130,000 Outlook reports in the U.S. at the peak, according to BeInCrypto. Nikkei reported that a broker relying on Microsoft email asked an asset manager to stop placing orders, while investment trusts delayed publishing net asset values. The government’s shared IT system, overseen by the Digital Agency, also went down, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki confirmed. Microsoft said servers failed automated health checks and a core process for setting up secure connections became overwhelmed; servers often failed again as traffic returned. Microsoft’s Japanese unit said it had found no evidence of a cyberattack. Some Australian workers also turned to fax, and RSM Australia partner Ashwin Pal estimated the cost to local businesses in the billions of Australian dollars. The outage follows a September disruption affecting ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, and has renewed debate about Web3’s centralization. Brother, Canon and Ricoh still sell fax machines and printers with fax features in Japan, though fax is no longer a core business for any of them. Microsoft shares closed slightly higher Thursday before slipping in overnight trading; the stock was already under pressure after Microsoft overtook Nvidia in market value earlier this week.