There seems to be no dispute that CrowdStrike’s botched update created havoc and damage, but CrowdStrike denies claims made by Delta Airlines that CrowdStrike was responsible and liable for their multi-day outage. The Register explains:
CrowdStrike says it is “highly disappointed” and rejects the claims made by Delta and its lawyers that the vendor exhibited gross negligence in the events that led to the global IT outage a little over two weeks ago.
That’s according to a letter, seen by The Reg and sent to David Boies, partner at the law firm Delta hired to investigate the airline’s legal options after it struggled more than most to bring its systems back online, leading to a sprawling list of flight cancellations.
The Falcon vendor reiterated its apology to Delta and the wider customer base. It then went on to remind Boies, known for his work as special counsel during the 1990s US antitrust trial against Microsoft, that it had been proactive in reaching out to Delta, offering support to the airline “within hours” of the incident unfolding.
“Delta’s public threat of litigation distracts from this work and has contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage,” the letter reads.
“Should Delta pursue this path, Delta will have to explain to the public, its shareholders, and ultimately a jury why CrowdStrike took responsibility for its actions – swiftly, transparently, and constructively – while Delta did not.”
CrowdStrike’s lawyer, Michael B. Carlinsky, then poked the bear further. He said that among other things, in this hypothetical trial Delta would also need to explain why it took so much longer than competitors to recover from the same issue, why it refused the free on-site help CrowdStrike offered – the support that led to faster recovery times than Delta’s, and the operational resiliency of its IT infrastructure.
Read more at The Register.
Delta is under investigation by the US Department of Transportation into Delta Airlines following its mass cancellation of flights following the CrowdStrike debacle. As DataCenterDynamics reports:
US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said that the department was looking into “how it could be that days after the other airlines are back to normal, Delta is still canceling hundreds of flights.”
So… is Delta still a CrowdStrike client?
