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Back in July, I wrote about the CrowdStrike IT issue and the mayhem that followed Delta and its crew scheduling software. The IT outage was initially a global issue and ended up bringing airports, airlines, banks, and other institutions to a standstill overnight as Microsoft-based computers running software from CrowdStrike (a cybersecurity company that provides cloud workload protection, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services) stopped functioning. A fix was deployed and within a few days most companies (including airlines) had returned to normal operations. Most airlines, that is, with the notable exception of Delta. The Atlanta-based carrier cancelled thousands of flights and struggled to run its operations effectively for over a week.
Delta Air Lines reportedly lost an estimated more than $550 million ($380 million in revenue and $170 million in other costs) from the IT outage initially caused by CrowdStrike. Delta hired attorney David Boies shortly after the incident. He’s the chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner and is known for his handling of high-profile cases. Boies is known for representing the US government in its antitrust case against Microsoft, for representing Al Gore in 2000, for helping overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, for representing Harvey Weinstein (the imprisoned former Hollywood mogul), and Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes (who is also in prison for defrauding investors).
In its suit, Delta claims:
CrowdStrike caused a global catastrophe because it cut corners, took shortcuts, and circumvented the very testing and certification processes it advertised, for its own benefit and profit. If CrowdStrike had tested the Faulty Update on even one computer before deployment, the computer would have crashed.”
Delta handled over 176,000 refund and reimbursement requests after almost 7,000 flights were canceled. The airline wants to pass some of this blame and is going to see what it can get from CrowdStrike. The estimated damages to all Fortune 500 companies impacted by the outage is around $5.4 billion according to cloud monitoring company, Parametrix’ analysis.
CrowdStrike’s CEO responded to CNBC with the following:
While we aimed to reach a business resolution that puts customers first, Delta has chosen a different path. Delta’s claims are based on disproven misinformation, demonstrate a lack of understanding of how modern cybersecurity works, and reflect a desperate attempt to shift blame for its slow recovery away from its failure to modernize its antiquated IT infrastructure.”
Delta’s IT is notoriously out of date and this incident highlighted just how antiquated. Delta disabled automatic updates from CrowdStrike, but this one reached its computers anyway (the airline said in the suit). Delta claims that “CrowdStrike’s Falcon software created and exploited an unauthorized door in Windows that the airline said it never would have allowed.”
Anthony’s Take: It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court. While CrowdStrike was initially to blame, Delta’s response in getting it fixed as well as how it handled customers left a lot to be desired.
(Image Credits: Delta Air Lines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
