Australia's spy agency and federal police were among the organisations caught up in a widespread outage of Microsoft programmes on Friday (November 13), with the government triggering an agreement with the company to ensure priority restoration of services.

The disruption affected Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams and other apps, leaving users around the world unable to access services for several hours.

At a news conference, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett confirmed their organisations had been impacted by the outage.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he had spoken to Microsoft, who said they did not believe the outage was a result of a cyber attack and added the government has activated an agreement with the software company to ensure Australia gets prioritised in restoration works.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (NOVEMBER 13, 2026) (SEVEN NETWORK – Broadcast: No use Australia Digital: No use Australia / .com.au internet sites / any internet site of any Australia based media organisations or mobile platforms / Australian NVO clients / smh.com.au / news.com.au)

1. AUSTRALIA'S HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER TONY BURKE SPEAKING AT NEWS CONFERENCE

2. WHITE FLASH

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIA'S HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER TONY BURKE, SAYING:

"I've spoken this morning shortly before the media conference to get the latest briefing from both Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness the Cyber Security Coordinator and following that Jane Livesey from Microsoft in Australia. The perspective of Microsoft at this stage they do not believe they are dealing with a cyber event, they don't believe they are dealing with a cyber attack. They believe they are dealing in some ways similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry."

4. WHITE FLASH

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIA'S HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER TONY BURKE, SAYING:

"The impact that they are dealing with very much is very much on email systems. One of things that we had with CrowdStrike was we then had a whole lot of downstream impacts where it was effected the capability of a whole range of other products quite separate from that."

6. WHITE FLASH

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE COMMISSIONER, KRISSY BARRETT, SAYING: (ASKED IF THEIR AGENCIES WERE AFFECTED BY THE MICROSOFT OUTAGE)

"Yes our agency was, yes"

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF SECURITY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION, MIKE BURGESS SAYING:

"We operate on multiple levels so one level yes but not completely."

8. WHITE FLASH

9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIA'S HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER TONY BURKE, SAYING:

"The relationship that we have with Microsoft is an important one. There is good security work that is done with Microsoft as a business and when it came to the formal cyber agreements which I've signed on behalf of Australia, the first of those was with Microsoft. That agreement has in fact been activated today to make sure that we get appropriate prioritisation of Australian interests in this."

10. WHITE FLASH

11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUSTRALIA'S HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER TONY BURKE, SAYING:

"Across everything the concept of diversity, it's a relevant issue in trade, it's a relevant issue across software, it's a relevant issue across everything, but I would not want to allow that general statement to undermine the fact that there is a significant, there is very significant good work that is done between Australia and Microsoft in terms of making sure we have high levels of security."

12. WHITE FLASH

13. BURKE LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE