The incident disrupted the travel plans of 1.3 million Delta Airlines customers, costing the airline more than $500 million. Delta Airlines’ lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, calls CrowdStrike’s flawed software update “catastrophic”; the company “pushed untested and faulty updates to customers, causing more than 8.5 million Microsoft Windows computers worldwide to crash.”
“Delta Airlines’ claims are based on misinformation that has been dismissed, demonstrates a lack of understanding of how modern cybersecurity works, and reflects a desperate attempt to shift responsibility for their delayed recovery from their failure to modernize their outdated IT infrastructure,” CrowdStrike said in a statement on the evening of October 25 (morning of October 26, Vietnam time).
The incident disrupted the travel plans of 1.3 million Delta Airlines passengers, causing losses to the airline of more than 500 million USD.
Delta Airlines purchased CrowdStrike products in 2022, and the CrowdStrike incident forced the airline to cancel 7,000 flights, affecting 1.3 million passengers within 5 days.
The airline claims CrowdStrike is liable for more than $500 million in direct losses, as well as an unspecified amount of lost profits, other costs including attorneys' fees and “reputational damage and loss of future revenue.”
The airline claims CrowdStrike is responsible for more than $500 million in direct losses as well as an unspecified amount of lost profits.
Delta Airlines said that as part of its IT infrastructure plan, it has invested billions of dollars in licensing and building some of the best technology solutions in the industry. CrowdStrike questioned why Delta was hit harder than other airlines and suggested the company had minimal responsibility, which Delta denied.
Adam Meyers, senior vice president at CrowdStrike, said the company released a content configuration update for its Falcon Sensor security software that led to system outages worldwide. “We are deeply sorry that this happened and we are determined to prevent it from happening again,” Meyers said.
