Crowdstrike struck back at Delta Airlines this week, rubbishing the airline’s threatened lawsuit over the recent IT meltdown and saying it would only lead to the airline’s own tech decision-making being aired in court.
The security firm has also handed Delta a shopping list of “items for legal preservation”, including details of its backup, DR, and IT business continuity plans and “any related testing”.
The airline was hard hit by the Crowdstrike outage, taking days longer to get up and running than rival operators.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian in a furious interview on CNBC’s Squawkbox programme last week said the firm had “no choice” but to take legal action against Crowdstrike.”
Crowdstrike and Microsoft “don't necessarily partner at the same level that we need them to,” he suggested. “And so, I think this is a call to the industry. Everyone talks about making sure big tech is responsible. Well, guys, this cost us a half $1 billion.”
Bastian added that despite swollen valuations tech companies had not “not delivered exceptional service” He singled out Microsoft as “the most fragile platform within that space.”
Afterall, he added, “When was the last time you heard about a big outage at Apple?”
Crowdstrike’s lawyers, in a response sent to storied tech lawyer David Boies, who is representing Delta, said the firm “strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed wilful misconduct with respect to the Channel File 291 incident.”
They added, “Your suggestion that CrowdStrike failed to do testing and validation is contradicted by the very information on which you rely from CrowdStrike’s Preliminary Post Incident Review.”
It claims that CrowdStrike CEO personally contacted Bastian to offer “onsite assistance” but received no response. A followup saw Delta say no assistance was needed.
The letter points out that “Delta will have to explain to the public, its shareholders, and ultimately a jury why CrowdStrike took responsibility for its actions—swiftly, transparently, and constructively—while Delta did not.”
That includes explaining why Delta’s competitors managed to get back up “much faster.”
And it would “include every action, or failure to act, by Delta or its third-party service providers, related to the Channel File 291 incident” as well as intimate details of Delta’s IT infrastructure.
A spokesperson added, “The letter speaks for itself. We have expressed our regret and apologies to all of our customers for this incident and the disruption that resulted.
“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 cooperatively to find a resolution.”
