Delta rejects CrowdStrike claims in latest letter

Take Skift

In the latest exchange between Delta, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft, Delta says the offer of on-site assistance from CrowdStrike came after most of its critical systems were restored.

Meghna Maharishi

Delta Air Lines responded to CrowdStrike on Thursday, saying the cybersecurity firm had adopted a “blame the victim” attitude.

In a letter sent to CrowdStrike’s attorney, Delta’s attorney, David Boies, said CrowdStrike failed to provide an “automatic” solution to the IT outage that ultimately turned into a disaster for Delta.

“There is no basis — none — to suggest that Delta is in any way responsible for the faulty software that caused systems around the world, including Delta’s, to go down,” Boies wrote. CrowdStrike did not suggest that Delta was responsible for the July 19 outage, but that it should not be blamed for Delta’s five-day outage.

While other airlines quickly recovered from the July 19 CrowdStrike outage, Delta took much longer to recover, canceling about 7,000 flights.

Delta now expects a $380 million revenue loss in the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing released Thursday. The carrier will also face $170 million in expenses related to customer reimbursements and crew costs.

CEO Ed Bastian said last week on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the operator had “no other choice” but to sue CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

Boies’ letter refutes most of CrowdStrike’s claims. But the letter doesn’t directly address Microsoft’s claims. Microsoft’s attorney sent a letter to Delta on Tuesday that argued outdated technology likely caused Delta’s collapse.

“Rather than continuing to try to avoid responsibility, I hope CrowdStrike will immediately share everything it knows,” Boies’ letter reads. “All will come out in the lawsuit anyway.”

Delta says CrowdStrike wasn’t proactive

CrowdStrike said Monday that it had offered Delta on-site assistance for the outage, but Delta declined. A lawyer for the cybersecurity firm also said its CEO had reached out to Bastian but had not received a response.

Now Delta says CrowdStrike CEO George Kurz’s offer of help was “unhelpful and untimely.” Boies wrote that the offer came four days after the IT outage, by which time Delta had already restored most of its critical systems.

“Many of the remaining aircraft were located in secure airport areas that required government authorization for access,” the letter said. “Delta’s confidence in CrowdStrike was naturally shaken at that time.”

Delta also claims CrowdStrike did not offer proactive on-site assistance. Instead, the carrier said CrowdStrike referred it to a website that suggested manually restarting each affected aircraft.

Boies said that when CrowdStrike offered an automated solution on July 21, the company also introduced another bug that “prevented many machines from recovering without additional intervention.”

Delta says it is more dependent on Microsoft and CrowdStrike

Delta’s lawyer said the carrier’s slower recovery time was due to the fact that it is more dependent on CrowdStrike and Microsoft than other airlines. About 60% of Delta’s “mission critical” applications, including backups, rely on CrowdStrike and Microsoft, the letter said.

“Delta’s reliance on CrowdStrike and Microsoft actually worsened its experience with the CrowdStrike disaster,” the letter reads.

Another problem for Delta during the meltdown was its inability to contact crew members. Delta had previously said its crew-scheduling systems needed more time to sync. Boies’ letter said a July 19 CrowdStrike software update had caused such a large backlog in Delta’s crew-scheduling systems that human intervention was needed to resolve them.