Guernsey’s government, public utilities, and many businesses are experiencing disruption following a global Microsoft outage, with problems affecting email systems and online services.
The States said its emails had been affected, meaning they were “only being received and sent intermittently”.
“If you contact us via email, please be aware that we may not receive this immediately. However, we will aim to get back to you as quickly as possible.”
Guernsey Electricity has reassured customers that electricity supplies are unaffected, but warned that its email systems and website forms are not working properly.
Anyone needing to contact the utility has been asked to call 200700 instead.
Guernsey Energy has also reported problems with some of its online forms. Anyone who has ordered gas through its website in the past 24 hours, or needs to place an order, has been asked to call its customer services team on 724811.
Express is also experiencing email disruption, while the Guernsey Financial Services Commission’s (GFSC) email systems are understood to be down.
Several finance firms in the island are also understood to have been affected, with disruption to email services potentially delaying communications.
But it’s not just the finance industry feeling the impact.
St Peter Port restaurant Pier 17 has warned customers that its email service has been disrupted, meaning it may take longer to respond to enquiries.
It has stressed, however, that the restaurant remains open as normal, and has asked customers with urgent enquiries to telephone 720823.
What’s happened?
What’s happened?
Microsoft is experiencing a major disruption to its cloud-based services, which millions of businesses and organisations rely on to run their day-to-day operations.
The problems are affecting Microsoft 365, including Exchange Online, the system which powers Outlook email, as well as other services such as Teams.
That means organisations using Microsoft’s systems may be unable to send or receive emails reliably, access certain online services or use some workplace applications.
Microsoft has been investigating the cause and working to restore affected services. It has said there is no indication that the incident is the result of a cyber attack.
