CrowdStrike and Delta Air Lines in Dispute over System Failure and Liability
TapTechNews August 5th news, the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike refuted the accusation of Delta Air Lines on Sunday. The latter attributed the large-scale flight cancellations caused by the global system failure that occurred on July 19 to the wrong update of CrowdStrike, and CrowdStrike hinted that its potential liability was limited.
Delta Air Lines' CEO Ed Bastian said last week that the failure cost the airline $500 million (TapTechNews note: currently about 3.585 billion yuan) and plans to take legal action to claim compensation from CrowdStrike.
CrowdStrike reiterated its apology to Delta Air Lines, but in a letter from an external lawyer, it said it was extremely disappointed with Delta Air Lines' implication that CrowdStrike behaved improperly, and strongly objected to any accusations of its gross negligence or misbehavior.
Due to this failure, Delta Air Lines cancelled more than 6,000 flights within six days, affecting more than 500,000 passengers. The airline is currently facing an investigation by the US Department of Transportation, because its recovery time is much longer than that of other airlines.
CrowdStrike said in the letter that any liability of CrowdStrike is contractually limited to the range of tens of millions of dollars.
Within a few hours after the failure occurred, CrowdStrike contacted Delta Air Lines and expressed its willingness to provide assistance. In addition, the CEO of CrowdStrike also personally contacted the CEO of Delta Air Lines and offered to provide on-site assistance, but received no response, the letter reads. Bastian told CNBC last week that CrowdStrike provided free consulting advice to help us.
Delta Air Lines said in a letter to US lawmakers last week that the wrong update of CrowdStrike affected more than half of Delta Air Lines' computers, including many workstations at every airport in Delta Air Lines' network.
CrowdStrike's letter also stated that if Delta Air Lines files a lawsuit, it needs to explain why Delta Air Lines' competitors facing similar challenges can recover operations faster and why Delta Air Lines refused the free on-site help of CrowdStrike professionals, who have helped many other customers recover operations faster.
A spokesperson for CrowdStrike said, Publicly declaring the possibility of filing a baseless lawsuit against long-term partner CrowdStrike has no constructive effect on either party. We hope Delta Air Lines agrees to cooperate to find a solution.