Delta Seeks $500M Compensation From CrowdStrike for IT Chaos

Delta Air Lines initiated The proceedings against Crowdstrike due to a large-scale failure in computer systems. The air carrier requires compensation of $ 500 million for damage caused by unsuccessful software updating on July 19.

The largest airline in the world was forced to abolish about 7,000 flights for five days. in the statement of claim filed in the Higher Court of Fulton, Delta Air Lines accuses the computer security manufacturer of violating Georgia’s state legislation to counteract hacker attacks.

According to the air carrier, Crowdstrike went around the established restrictions on the automatic update of the Falcon security system. The company emphasizes the inadmissibility of the installation of unauthorized and unusual software.

A large -scale failure touched the functioning of 8.5 million computers running Microsoft Windows worldwide. Despite the initial intentions of DELTA CEO Eda Bastian to file a lawsuit against Crowdstrike and Microsoft, the final statement of claim was made exclusively by the developer of the cybersecurity decisions.

The case file states that the July update did not meet the requirements of Microsoft for access at the nucleus of the Windows operating system, since there was no mandatory certification for defects. The total direct damage from the technical failure is estimated at more than $ 5.4 billion.

According to Delta’s financial report, the company incurred losses in the amount of $ 380 million on compensatory payments to passengers of canceled flights and 170 million on expenses related to customer service and crews.

According to the preliminary analysis of the incident from Crowdstrike, the cause of the failure was a defect in the cloud infrastructure of updates testing, which made the passage of an incorrect template with critical errors in program code. The subsequent comprehensive investigation revealed the need for a phased deployment of updates instead of a one -time implementation in the production environment, which would allow localizing the scale of potential failures.

In the official statement, the representative of Crowdstrike indicated that Delta’s claims are based on refuted disinformation and demonstrate a misunderstanding of the principles of modern cybersecurity. According to the company, the air carrier is trying to shift responsibility for the slow restoration of the outdated IT infrastructure.

/Reports, release notes, official announcements.