Microsoft outage exposes Estonian state's reliance on the company

A disruption of Microsoft services on Friday, 13 November, interfered with the work of many Estonian government agencies and businesses. Problems with applications such as Outlook and Teams began on Thursday evening and affected access to email, calendars and other tools. By Friday noon, Microsoft had not said what caused the outage. The incident shows how heavily Estonia's public administration relies on the office software of a single US technology company.

Why agencies use Microsoft

Agencies are not obliged to use Microsoft products, but most have chosen to. Taivo Tender, deputy director for technology and innovation at the State IT Center (RIT), said Microsoft was picked as the platform for the government's centralized workplace services when work began to standardize state IT. The aim was to improve the quality and security of agencies' systems and bring technical expertise together in one place. RIT currently serves 86 institutions, and the transition is gradual. According to Tender, no significant shortcomings have been found, but next year the centre plans to look more closely at alternatives, comparing costs and the risks of depending on one provider.

Expert views

Aare Reintam, a cybersecurity expert at Cybexer Technologies, said there is no reason to believe a cyberattack caused the disruption. In his assessment, server overload and rerouting of data traffic may be to blame. There are currently no signs that personal data or passwords have been leaked. Reintam considers replacing the whole Microsoft ecosystem impractical, since it would demand major financial and human resources.

Entrepreneur Taavi Kotka said that the use of Microsoft products is not a problem in itself, noting that some agencies have chosen open-source solutions.

Erik Janson, head of the national ICT infrastructure unit at the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, said licensing costs have risen over time. Agencies have backup systems, though these may offer less functionality. In the longer term, he considers it important to develop Europe's own sovereign cloud solutions, work the European Commission has already begun.

Impact on courts

The outage also disrupted court email. Viivika Siplane, spokesperson for Harju District Court, said procedural documents cannot currently be submitted by email and asked people to use the public e-File system.