ATLANTA (AP) — Delta Air Lines Inc. filed a lawsuit against CrowdStrike on Friday, alleging the cybersecurity company took shortcuts and caused technology outages around the world that led to the cancellation of thousands of flights in July.
The airline is seeking compensatory and punitive damages stemming from the outage, which began with a faulty update sent to several million Microsoft computers. Delta said the outage paralyzed its operations for several days, costing more than $500 million in lost revenue and additional expenses.
CrowdStrike said Delta is providing “misinformation,” doesn’t understand cybersecurity and is trying to shift the blame for its slow recovery from the outage.
The US Department of Transportation is investigating the cause of Delta It took longer to recover From other carriers. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department will also look into complaints about Delta Customer service During service outages, including long waits for assistance and reports of unaccompanied minors stranded at airports.
Delta claims in its lawsuit that the outage occurred because CrowdStrike failed to test the update before rolling it out worldwide.
Delta canceled about 7,000 flights over a five-day period during the peak summer holiday season. The outage also affected banks, hospitals and other businesses.
“CrowdStrike caused a global catastrophe because it cut corners, took shortcuts, and circumvented the testing and certification processes it advertised, for its own benefit and profit,” Delta said in the lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia. Near the company headquarters.
A CrowdStrike spokesman said the company had tried to resolve the dispute — and one of its lawyers said in August that CrowdStrike’s liability to Delta was less than $10 million.
Delta’s claims are based on “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 aging IT infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.