Microsoft fixes fault that saw Hotmail, Outlook flooded with spam

Hotmail and Outlook email users were breathing a sigh of relief on Thursday, with confirmation from Microsoft that it had fixed a fault in its spam filters.

Earlier this week, users reported being inundated with unwanted spam messages, with Microsoft saying on Tuesday evening that “some users may be receiving excessive spam mail.”

The Nasdaq-traded company has now claimed the problem is solved.

“We’ve implemented the fixes throughout the affected infrastructure, which has mitigated impact,” the Seattle-based firm said in a statement.

“We’re implementing two fixes. One will provide short-term relief preventing spam reaching your inbox.

“The second will be a longer-term fix which should stop spam reaching our infrastructure,” the company explained.

Microsoft has not yet explained what caused the problems, although a number of technology commentators pointed out that it was currently migrating all of its email servers to the Office 265 cloud service, with the possibility issues were encountered during that process.