Microsoft's massive glitch: from stock markets to airports

On Friday, the world faced a massive glitch in Microsoft's systems. Stock indexes of the largest countries in Western Europe fell sharply, reflecting investor concern. 

Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.66%, FTSE 100 – 0.75%, DAX – 0.9%, CAC 40 – 0.88%. Italy's FTSE MIB and Spain's IBEX 35 declined 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively. 

A malfunction of Microsoft Windows caused by an update from CrowdStrike has led to serious problems in many countries. Air transportation has been severely affected. The largest American airlines Delta, United Airlines and American Airlines have suspended all flights. Airports around the world, including Berlin, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, reported flight delays. Emergency measures have been introduced in Hong Kong, airport staff manually check in passengers. Flights were also delayed at airports in Singapore and Malaysia. 

Banks, media and rail carriers also faced problems. In Australia, the outage affected banks, airlines and media, including the ABC channel. In the UK, Sky News could not broadcast live due to technical problems. Rail carriers in the UK also faced technical problems.