Delta sues CrowdStrike over software update that prompted mass flight disruptions
Delta says faulty update resulted in 7,000 flight cancellations, impacting 1.3 million passengers
CrowdStrike rejects Delta lawsuit, blames airline's IT
Delta disruption under investigation by USDOT
Adds CrowdStrike statement in paragraph 4
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) -Delta Air Lines DAL.N on Friday sued cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike CRWD.O in a Georgia state court after a global outage in July caused mass flight cancellations, disrupted travel plans of 1.3 million customers and cost the carrier more than $500 million.
Delta's lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court called the faulty software update from CrowdStrike "catastrophic" and said the firm "forced untested and faulty updates to its customers, causing more than 8.5 million Microsoft MSFT.O Windows-based computers around the world to crash."
The July 19 incident led to worldwide flight cancellations and hit industries around the globe including banks, health care, media companies and hotel chains.
"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," CrowdStrike said late on Friday.
Delta, which said it haspurchased CrowdStrike products since 2022, said the outage forced it to cancel 7,000 flights, impacting 1.3 million passengers over five days.
Delta said CrowdStrike is liable for over $500 million in out-of-pocket losses as well as for an unspecified amount of lost profits, expenditures, including attorneys’ fees and "reputational harm and future revenue loss."
The incident prompted the U.S. Transportation Department to open an investigation.
"If CrowdStrike had tested the faulty update on even one computer before deployment, the computer would have crashed," Delta's lawsuit says. "Because the faulty update could not
be removed remotely, CrowdStrike crippled Delta’s business and created immense delays for Delta customers."
Delta said that as part of its IT-planning and infrastructure, it has invested billions of dollars "in licensing and building some of the best technology solutions in the airline industry." CrowdStrike has questioned why Delta fared so much worse than other airlines and said it has minimal liability,something Delta rejected.
Last month, a senior executive at CrowdStrike apologized before Congress for the faulty software update.
Adam Meyers, a senior vice president at CrowdStrike, said the company released a content configuration update for its Falcon Sensor security software that resulted in system crashes worldwide. "We are deeply sorry this happened and we are determined to prevent this from happening again," Meyers said.
Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
