ATLANTA– Delta Air Lines sued CrowdStrike on Friday, claiming the cybersecurity company cut corners and caused a global technology outage that led to thousands of canceled flights in July.
The airline is seeking compensation and damages for the outage, which started with a faulty update sent to several million Microsoft computers. Delta said the outage crippled its operations for several days and cost more than $500 million in lost revenue and additional costs.
CrowdStrike did not immediately comment, but an attorney representing the company pointed out this summer that other airlines had recovered from the outage much more quickly and said Delta was misleading in its response.
The US Department of Transportation is investigating why Delta took longer to recover than other carriers. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department would investigate complaints about Delta customer service during the outage, including long waits for help and reports of unaccompanied minors stranded at airports.
In its lawsuit, Delta claims the outage occurred because CrowdStrike failed to test the update before rolling it out globally.
Delta canceled approximately 7,000 flights over a five-day period during the peak summer holiday season. The outage also affected banks, hospitals and other businesses.
“CrowdStrike caused a global catastrophe because it cut corners, took shortcuts, and circumvented the testing and certification processes it advertised for its own benefit and profit,” Delta said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia. near the company’s headquarters.
After Delta hired an attorney to file a claim, CrowdStrike retained its own legal counsel and struck back. A lawyer for the tech company, Michael Carlinsky, said Delta “has contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage.” Carlinsky said CrowdStrike’s liability should be less than $10 million.