Delta Air Lines has initiated legal action against CrowdStrike, accusing them of causing widespread flight disruptions through a problematic software update.
Delta's court case filed in Fulton County Superior Court labeled CrowdStrike's flawed software update as "disasterous" and accused the company of forcing untested and problematic updates onto its customers, resulting in over 8.5 million Windows-based computers globally crashing.
The incident on July 19 led to mass flight cancellations and hindered a variety of industries worldwide, such as banks, healthcare, media companies, and hotel chains.
Delta asserted that CrowdStrike's claims, which were based on unverified information, displayed a lack of comprehension of contemporary cybersecurity procedures and was an attempt to avoid responsibility for its slow recovery from this antique IT infrastructure's shortcomings.
Delta, which has used CrowdStrike products since 2022, claimed that the outage forced the cancellation of 7,000 flights, affecting 1.3 million passengers over a five-day period.
Delta accused CrowdStrike of being responsible for over $500 million in direct losses, in addition to an unspecified amount of lost profits, expenses, including legal fees, and "reputational harm and future revenue loss."
The incident prompted the U.S. Transportation Department to initiate an investigation.
As per Delta's lawsuit, if CrowdStrike had tested the faulty update on even one computer before deployment, the computer would have broken down. Because the faulty update couldn't be removed remotely, CrowdStrike hindered Delta's operations and caused substantial delays for Delta's customers.
Delta mentioned that as part of its IT planning and infrastructure, it had invested billions of dollars in licensing and constructing some of the best technology solutions in the airline industry.
CrowdStrike disputed why Delta was affected so severely and argued it had minimal responsibility, which Delta countered.
Last month, a CrowdStrike executive spoke before Congress and apologized for the faulty software update.
Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike's senior vice president, admitted that the company released a content configuration update for its Falcon Sensor security software that triggered system crashes worldwide. "We genuinely regret this happened, and we are committed to ensuring it won't happen again," Meyers said.
Despite Delta's significant investment in advanced technology solutions for its business operations, the faulty CrowdStrike update caused significant disruptions, affecting numerous industries beyond aviation.
Delta's ongoing legal battle with CrowdStrike also involves allegations of the cybersecurity company forcing untested updates onto its business clients, leading to substantial financial losses.
