Delta Air Lines, still reeling from the fallout of a massive outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike update, has taken legal action against both Microsoft and CrowdStrike. The airline’s CEO previously revealed the outage cost the company a staggering $500 million in lost revenue, with Delta needing to manually reset 40,000 servers and cancel over 5,000 flights.
The issue arose from a flawed update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor, a cybersecurity software used on millions of Windows machines. The faulty driver led to a kernel error, resulting in an estimated 8.5 million Windows machines being stuck in an infinite boot loop.
Delta, claiming significant financial losses and brand damage, has assembled a legal team to pursue damages from both Microsoft and CrowdStrike. However, Microsoft has vehemently denied any responsibility, citing Delta’s alleged disregard for their repeated offers of assistance during the crisis.
In a letter from Microsoft’s legal representative, Mark Cheffo, to David Boies, Delta’s legal counsel, Microsoft refutes Delta’s accusations as “false” and “misleading.” The letter states that Microsoft extended offers of support to Delta every day between July 19 and July 24, including a letter from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Delta CEO Ed Bastian. These offers, according to Microsoft, were ignored by the airline.
Furthermore, Microsoft criticized Delta’s IT infrastructure, drawing a comparison between the recovery time of Delta’s competitors and Delta’s own, highlighting Delta’s lack of “modernized” IT infrastructure. This latest development adds another layer of complexity to an already contentious situation, with both sides engaged in a legal battle with significant financial and reputational stakes.
