CrowdStrike lawyer claims Delta CEO ignored help offer in outage chaos

On 4 August cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike hit back against claims of negligence regarding its handling of the widespread system outage, from Delta Air Lines. A letter from CrowdStrike’s lawyers claimed the firm offered Delta Air Lines help on multiple occasions to restore their systems amid the widespread system outage, but were refused.

The escalation came after Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Delta would pursue legal action against CrowdStrike to recover funds of up to $500 million lost due to disrupted flights and compensation to passengers.

CrowdStrike’s position

The letter restated apologies from the cybersecurity firm over the outage, before threatening further action if Delta continued to repeat its claims.

The letter was written by CrowdStrike’s attorney Michael Carlinsky of Quinn Emmanuel in New York, and addressed to Delta’s lawyer David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner.

“CrowdStrike is highly disappointed by Delta’s suggestion that CrowdStrike acted inappropriately and strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed wilful misconduct”.

It went on to explain the firm worked “tirelessly” to help customers get systems up and running again, reaching out to Delta to offer assistance and a personal offer from its CEO to Delta’s CEO for onsite assistance.

Delta’s Response

Delta said it had no comment to make, and Carlinsky confirmed to Airport Technology that he had not received a reply from Delta’s representatives.

In an earlier interview, Bastian explained the issues were with Microsoft and CrowdStrike, and because Delta uses these systems heavily it “got it the hardest in terms of recovery capability”.

He went on to say that due to the hundreds of millions of dollars lost by Delta in the five days of disruption, due to both lost revenue and compensation, the firm has “no choice” but to sue.  

The decision to sue followed the US Transportation Department announcing an investigation into Delta after the firm struggled to resume operations at the same pace as other carriers.

CrowdStike’s lawyers said public threats of litigation have “contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage” and will mean Delta will have to explain why the firm turned down the free onsite help offered from CrowdStrike professionals.

The letter ended with confirmation that although litigation would be “unfortunate,” CrowdStrike will be forced to “respond aggressively, if forced to do so, in order to protect its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders”.