March 15 Microsoft Azure Outage Resolved

Last week, Microsoft's Azure login system was affected by an unexpected outage impacting many from 7 p.m., Monday, March 15, to 9 a.m., Tuesday, March 16. 

Azure allows a user to securely sign in once and use multiple tools such as Workday, Microsoft Office 365 (including Teams) and other services using single sign on (SSO). Using SSO helps prevent phishing attacks, protects UARK account information and safeguards user identities. 

Microsoft identified the problem as an issue with their key removal operation. Much like someone giving you access to their house after they recognize who you are, a key allows you to access software programs after your identify is verified. When a key is granted it is "signed or authorized" by a master key. Keys have an expiration, and after a key expires, the user needs a new one. However, if the master key is invalidated, then users can no longer get a valid key. During the outage, Microsoft's master key was not valid so as keys expired, new ones could not be issued. 

Microsoft published an initial report about the incident and stated: "We understand how incredibly impactful and unacceptable this is and apologize deeply. We are continuously taking steps to improve the Microsoft Azure Platform and our processes to help ensure such incidents do not occur in the future."

The Azure Admin Portal, Teams, Exchange, Azure KeyVault, SharePoint, Storage and other major applications have recovered.

For tech help, contact the IT Help Desk by calling 479-575-HELP or by visiting http://help.uark.edu.