CrowdStrike has stated that it is not responsible for Delta’s flight cancellations that occurred following an outage in July.
Editor Thenews24.net
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In a recent development, CrowdStrike has denied responsibility for the flight cancellations experienced by Delta Air Lines following a significant outage in July. Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, revealed on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the outage, which occurred during a peak travel period, resulted in a financial hit of approximately $500 million, including customer compensation. Bastian mentioned that Delta intends to seek damages and has engaged the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to pursue legal claims against CrowdStrike and Microsoft.
CrowdStrike’s attorney, Michael Carlinsky, responded by stating that Delta’s threats of litigation have created a false impression that CrowdStrike is to blame for Delta’s IT issues and their response to the outage. Carlinsky noted that CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, had offered on-site assistance to Delta, but received no reply.
The outage, caused by a failed software update, led to the cancellation of over 5,000 Delta flights between July 19 and July 25, surpassing the disruptions faced by other airlines. This incident has also impacted CrowdStrike’s stock, which has dropped by more than 36% since the outages affected numerous computers running its software on Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Carlinsky’s letter emphasized that if Delta proceeds with legal action, it will need to justify to the public, shareholders, and a jury why CrowdStrike acted responsibly and transparently, while Delta did not. He also mentioned that Delta would need to preserve documents related to its IT infrastructure and outage management over the past five years.
CrowdStrike expressed a desire to work collaboratively with Delta to resolve the issue. Bastian, in a separate interview, stressed the importance of thorough testing for any technology integrated into Delta’s operations. CrowdStrike has committed to releasing future software updates in stages as part of their preliminary post-incident report.
Additionally, CrowdStrike is facing a lawsuit from its shareholders, filed in a Texas federal court, seeking damages for the decline in their investments. The company is set to report its fiscal second-quarter results on August 28. Microsoft has not yet commented on the situation.