Delta Critiques CrowdStrike's Apology After Crisis

Delta Air Lines has escalated its legal battle against cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike following a significant service disruption attributed to a software update. In a letter from Delta's attorney, David Boies, the airline accused CrowdStrike of "gross negligence" for a bug that caused a global tech outage, leading to the cancellation of 7,000 flights between July 19 and July 24. While CrowdStrike has acknowledged its role in the initial outage, it contends that Delta is responsible for the subsequent cancellations, which persisted long after other airlines resumed operations. Boies criticized CrowdStrike's apology as insufficient, arguing that it was accompanied by misleading statements attempting to shift blame onto Delta. He defended Delta's IT systems as "world class" and asserted that the airline's prolonged outage was due to its reliance on CrowdStrike and Microsoft technologies. Boies emphasized that the issues were exacerbated by the need for manual restarts of Delta's computers, which were complicated further by a subsequent bug introduced by CrowdStrike. The attorney also refuted claims that Delta had declined assistance from CrowdStrike, stating that the support offered during the initial hours of the outage was merely a referral to a public remediation website. Boies described this as inadequate, characterizing it as "free consulting advice" rather than the proactive help Delta required to restore its systems effectively. The ongoing dispute highlights the complexities and challenges faced by both companies in the wake of the service disruption.