Friday’s Microsoft outage did not disrupt the work of banks or government offices in Poland. The only limitation, reported by mBank and Kraków’s city hall, is difficulty communicating with recipients by email.
The Microsoft outage on Thursday cut off millions of people worldwide from Outlook email, the Teams app and other basic tools of the modern office. Banks, government institutions and courts in many countries were affected.
Piotr Rutkowski, a spokesman for mBank, told PAP that apart from difficulties with email contact with customers, all services are working properly.
He noted that customers have been informed about the difficulties and about alternative ways to contact mBank.
Paweł Jurek, a spokesman for PEKAO, stressed that the outage has no effect on the bank’s customer service.
Piotr Utrata, a spokesman for ING, told PAP that the Microsoft outage as a rule does not affect customers’ banking operations.
Małgorzata Witkowska of the media team at PKO Bank Polski said the outage is not disrupting service to PKO Bank Polski customers.
“We are monitoring the situation and checking the availability of our services on an ongoing basis,” she assured.
Deputy Digital Affairs Minister Dariusz Standerski told PAP that the Microsoft outage did not disrupt the work of Polish government offices. He noted that Polish administration is operating without disruption thanks to its own electronic document management system (EZD).
The Kraków city hall also reported possible difficulties with email contact because of the outage, in a post on X.
Press offices of the ministries contacted by PAP, meanwhile, did not report any ongoing problems with the functioning of the administration. The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) told PAP that the outage does not affect its operations.
In its latest service status update on Friday, Microsoft said it is now seeing “promising progress in restoring them in Europe,” and that service availability and email delivery success are “improving across a growing portion” of its infrastructure. (PAP)
Standerski: Microsoft Outage Did Not Disrupt Polish Offices Thanks to Domestic EZD System
The global Microsoft outage shows that companies and government offices should not rely on the services of just one provider, Deputy Digital Affairs Minister Dariusz Standerski told PAP. He stressed that Polish administration is operating without disruption thanks to its own electronic document management system (EZD).
Standerski explained that the outage is affecting users of various Microsoft services in different regions. “Sometimes emails simply don’t arrive, sometimes attachments won’t open, and in other cases the Teams app doesn’t work,” he said.
“Personally, I am very pleased that public administration in Poland does not rely on just one source and one company, because the electronic document management system works and is in most offices in Poland,” the deputy minister said. He added that, as a result, offices can handle citizens’ affairs as usual.
“It is a Polish system, supplied by Polish providers, so everything works flawlessly,” he said, referring to EZD.
The deputy minister stressed that the outage proves the need to diversify digital services. “Today’s example shows us that you cannot rely, in your company or in your office, on just one application from one provider. You need more offerings, diverse systems in this regard,” he said.
Standerski also referred to the ongoing summit of European Union leaders, devoted in part to digital sovereignty and artificial intelligence. He said digital sovereignty should mean the ability to choose providers and replace IT systems.
“There is probably no better day for the EU member states, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to discuss this and also support this digital sovereignty of the European Union,” he said. He added that the aim is “so that one global outage does not paralyze entire sectors in Poland.”
The Microsoft outage on Thursday cut off millions of people worldwide from Outlook email, the Teams app and other basic tools of the modern office. Banks, government institutions and courts in many countries were affected.
According to the monitoring service Downdetector, reports of the outage “reached 74 countries and territories within about an hour.” In the United States, employees at some companies went home early on Thursday. In Australia, businesses were unable to print invoices, and some schools were unable to hold online classes on Friday. (PAP)
