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TechRadar
Efosa Udinmwen

Microsoft has finally fixed a bizarre issue that saw it reroute traffic to an obscure Japanese company - so what exactly went wrong?

Microsoft.
  • Microsoft routed example.com email traffic to servers operated by Sumitomo Electric
  • A test-only domain was treated as a real email provider inside Microsoft systems
  • Outlook autodiscover returned valid IMAP and SMTP servers for fake accounts

In January 2026, network researchers noticed unusual behavior inside Microsoft’s infrastructure involving example.com.

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