(Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Contributor via Getty Images)
CrowdStrike has sent a legal response to Delta refuting the airline's prior "legal claims" following the massive Windows IT outage in July caused by CrowdStrike's cybersecurity products. In its response, CrowdStrike blames Delta for the airline's response to the outage that impacted millions of computers.
"CrowdStrike is highly disappointed by Delta's suggestion that CrowdStrike acted inappropriately and strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed willful misconduct," the cybersecurity firm said.
The company, who is now facing a lawsuit from its shareholders, also claims that it reached out to Delta to offer "onsite assistance," but Delta ignored it and then declined the offer. CrowdStrike argues that it shouldn't be held responsible for Delta's response to the outage.
The July 19 outage impacted millions of Windows computers. It was caused by an error in a binary file at the Windows kernel level, leading Microsoft to debate whether the "tradeoff" of kernel-level access is worth the risk. Only Windows machines using CrowdStrike were impacted, but the sheer number of crashed systems that had to be fixed manually resulted in thousands of delayed flights, shuttered government offices, delayed packages, and made it difficult for hospitals to operate normally around the world.
While some airlines fared better in their recovery efforts, Delta struggled to resolve its issues and cancelled over 5,000 flights, more than any other impacted airline. Delta's CEO Ed Bastian has since confirmed that the outage cost it roughly $500 million and revealed that Delta had to manually reset over 40,000 servers. Last month, the US Department of Transportation began investigating Delta over its response to the CrowdStrike Windows crash.
Reached for comment, a Delta representative declined to comment further beyond Bastian's recent CNBC interview.
The global economic impact of this IT crash more broadly is expected to be in the multiple billions of dollars. A new Bloomberg report suggests that only $1.5 billion out of an estimated $5.4 billion in total damages experienced by Fortune500 firms as a result of the crash will be covered by insurance.