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Incident

Oxford United Football Club

Incident posture

Attack window
Jul 2023
Location
United Kingdom
Status
Historical
CIA posture
Available to members
Updated
2026-04-16 12:30

Linked entities

Victim
Oxford United Football Club
Threat actors
0 actors
Sources
1 source

Timeline

Occurred
Jul 2023
Discovered
Pending
Disclosed
Pending
Resolved
Pending

Summary

Oxford United Football Club reported that online members were unable to access online ticketing and club shop services due to a Microsoft outage. The outage resulted from a distributed denial-of-service attack on Azure that triggered protection mechanisms which initially worsened the impact. The outage also affected services such as Teams, Xbox Live, and NatWest banking services before being resolved after network changes. The club confirmed the issue prevented online members from accessing online ticketing and club shop services.

Motives

Detailed motive labels are available to members.

0 motives

TTPs

Detailed technique labels are available to members.

1 technique

Description

On Tuesday a distributed denial‑of‑service attack targeted Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, triggering the company’s DDoS protection mechanisms. The protection had been misconfigured during a recent rollout, which caused it to amplify the attack rather than mitigate it. Microsoft responded by making network configuration changes that reduced the traffic load and eventually restored normal operation. The company later stated that the issue had been resolved.

The disruption affected a range of Microsoft services, with users reporting problems accessing Teams, Xbox Live and other applications. External organisations also experienced difficulties; NatWest apologised to customers who could not reach some of its webpages. Oxford United Football Club used its X account to inform members that the outage prevented them from using the club’s online ticketing system and club shop. The club’s post confirmed that online members were unable to complete purchases or access ticketing services during the incident.

Microsoft said its initial investigations found that an error in the rollout of its own defences had amplified the impact of the attack. The company indicated it would publish an incident review within 72 hours to provide further detail on what occurred. Oxford United Football Club’s statement on X served as the primary public communication from the club regarding the service interruption.

Sources

Sources available to members: 1 source.

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