Delta suing CrowdStrike over outage that caused 7,000 flight cancellations
What's the story
Delta Air Lines has been allowed to proceed with its lawsuit against cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The airline is looking to hold the company responsible for a major computer failure last July, which resulted in the cancellation of 7,000 flights. A state judge in Georgia, US has ruled in favor of Delta's right to pursue this legal action.
Proceedings
Judge's ruling on CrowdStrike's negligence
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly Lee Ellerbe has ruled that Delta can try to prove that CrowdStrike was grossly negligent in releasing a flawed update for its Falcon software. The update allegedly crashed over eight million Microsoft Windows-based computers worldwide. The judge wrote, "Delta has specifically pled that if CrowdStrike had tested the July update on one computer before its deployment, the programming error would have been detected."
Strategy
Delta's claims against CrowdStrike
Apart from establishing negligence, Delta has also been given the green light by the judge to pursue a computer trespass claim against CrowdStrike. The airline is also permitted to move forward with a revised claim alleging that CrowdStrike fraudulently promised not to introduce an "unauthorized back door" into its computers. This legal strategy is part of Delta's larger case against the cybersecurity firm.
Legal defense
CrowdStrike's response to the lawsuit
CrowdStrike's attorney Michael Carlinsky was confident that the judge will dismiss Delta's case or limit damages to "single-digit millions of dollars" under Georgia law. Meanwhile, the airline said it is pleased with this decision and remains confident in the merits of its case against CrowdStrike.
Expenses
Financial hit faced by Delta
Delta filed the lawsuit three months after the July 19, 2024 outage that disrupted travel for 1.4 million passengers. The airline estimated that this incident led to a loss of $550 million in revenue and increased expenses, despite offsetting some costs with $50 million in fuel savings. This financial impact highlights how serious the situation is for both Delta and its customers.