After major IT failure: Delta Airlines has filed a lawsuit against CrowdStrike
The airline suffered in particular from the major disruption on July 19 and lost a nine-figure sum. The chances of success of the lawsuit are unclear.
Model of a Boeing 717 Delta
(Image: Daniel AJ Sokolov)
Delta Airlines is getting serious: it has filed a lawsuit against CrowdStrike in a district court at its headquarters in the US state of Georgia. The reason for the lawsuit is no surprise: Delta would like to receive compensation for the events surrounding the major IT outage on July 19.
The faulty signature update for CrowdStrike's "Falcon" security software disrupted the travel plans of more than one million Delta customers and caused 7,000 flight cancellations. The resulting loss of revenue and the costs of the repair measures are now to be recovered from CrowdStrike. According to the airline's lawyers, the IT service provider is to pay over 500 million US dollars. A trivial programming error was responsible for the disaster.
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CrowdStrike, however, is waving the matter away and chose clear words in a statement to the US broadcaster CNBC. The airline's claims were based on disproven misinformation, demonstrated difficulties in understanding modern cyber security and reflected a desperate attempt to shift blame. Delta had failed to modernize its antiquated IT landscape.
Microsoft had already sounded the same horn in August, stating at the time that Delta, unlike competitors such as American and United Airlines, had slept through system updates and was therefore responsible for the long downtime.
(cku)
