Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike accused Delta Air Lines of offering a “misleading narrative” about the recent global technology outage as the two companies continue their dispute about who is to blame for damages the airline incurred.
Delta has threatened to sue CrowdStrike for the outage, which the airline’s CEO said cost it $500 billion.
Michael Carlinsky, a lawyer for CrowdStrike, said the company’s liability should be less than $10 million. He said CrowdStrike is “highly disappointed” that Delta has accused the company of acting inappropriately, noting CrowdStrike’s apology after the outage.
In a letter shared with The Hill, addressed to Delta’s lawyer David Boies, Carlinsky said Sunday that the airline’s threat of a lawsuit has “contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage.”
Carlinsky questioned why other airlines were able to recover from the outage more quickly. He said the cybersecurity company took responsibility for its actions after the outage and “Delta did not.”
On July 19, multiple airlines faced technology issues, but Delta faced large numbers of cancellations in the days following. The outage was linked to an update from CrowdStrike that crashed computers running Windows software.
CrowdStrike rolled out a rapid fix, but it took long periods for impacted customers to recover. In the days following the outage, thousands of Delta flights were cancelled or delayed.
In an appearance on CNBC, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the airline has “no choice” but to sue.
In a statement to The Hill, a CrowdStrike spokesperson said Carlinky’s letter “speaks for itself.”
“We have expressed our regret and apologies to all of our customers for this incident and the disruption that resulted,” the statement said. “Public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party. We hope that Delta will agree to work cooperative to find a resolution.”
In his letter, Carlinksy said litigation between the two companies would be unfortunate, but CrowdStrike will “respond aggressively, if forced to do so, in order to protect its shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders.”
Delta said in a statement to The Hill that the airline “has a long track record of investing in safe, reliable and elevated service for our customers and employees. Since 2016, Delta has invested billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures, in addition to the billions spent annually in IT operating costs.”
— Updated at 1:19 p.m.
