TapTechNews August 1st news, Delta Air Lines' chief executive officer, Ed Bastian, strongly criticized the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and the software giant Microsoft, saying that the recent 'Blue Screen of Death' incident led to the paralysis of the company's services for up to 5 days, with losses up to 500 million US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 3.624 billion Chinese yuan).
Bastian was interviewed by CNBC on Wednesday. When asked how much compensation CrowdStrike and Microsoft provided, he said: 'They provided nothing but free consulting advice.'
He also strongly criticized CrowdStrike's software update error that caused a large-scale paralysis of the computer systems of hundreds of companies worldwide on July 19. Bastian said: 'If you want to have priority access to Delta Air Lines' technical ecosystem, you must test these things well. You can't break into a 24/7 mission-critical operation and tell us there is a loophole, which simply doesn't work.'
The computer problem caused the paralysis of Delta Air Lines' critical crew tracking system, making the company unable to find the captains and flight attendants needed for the flight. Although other airlines quickly resumed normal operations after the CrowdStrike failure, Delta Air Lines was forced to cancel about 30% of its flights, resulting in about 500,000 people being stranded. Since then, it has taken several days to rebook flights for affected passengers and return checked luggage.
Delta Air Lines has not yet filed a lawsuit against CrowdStrike or Microsoft, but an informed source confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that the company has hired the law firm of well-known lawyer David Boies to pursue compensation from the two companies.
Bastian told CNBC: 'We have no choice. We must protect our shareholders, customers and employees from losses, not only economic losses, but also reputational losses.' He said that in addition to the loss of revenue from canceling about 6,300 flights within five days, the company also has to pay tens of millions of US dollars in hotel and other travel expense compensation to customers every day.
When it was suggested that a compensation of 500 million US dollars might cause a company like CrowdStrike to go bankrupt, Bastian replied: 'We are not trying to destroy them, but we hope to get compensation.'
A spokesperson for CrowdStrike said that the company's cash balance at the end of the last quarter was 3.7 billion US dollars. The company also has a 750 million US dollar revolving credit facility and an insurance policy designed to mitigate the impact of any potential legal claims.