ATLANTA — Microsoft is joining cybersecurity software firm CrowdStrike in fighting back against Delta Air Lines, which blames the companies for causing several thousand cancelled flights following a technology outage last month.
A lawyer for Microsoft said Tuesday that Delta’s key IT system is probably serviced by other technology companies, not Microsoft Windows.
“Your letter and Delta’s public comments are incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation,” Microsoft lawyer Mark Cheffo said in a letter to Delta attorney David Boies.
Cheffo said Microsoft was trying to determine “why other airlines were able to fully restore business operations so much faster than Delta.”
The comments represent an escalating fight between the tech companies and the Atlanta-based airline.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last week that the global technology outage that started with a faulty upgrade from CrowdStrike to machines running on Microsoft Windows cost the airline $500 million. Bastian raised the threat of legal action.
A lawyer for CrowdStrike says, however, that the company’s liability should be less than $10 million.
Michael Carlinsky said in a letter Sunday to Delta lawyer Boies that the airline’s threatened lawsuit “has contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage.”
The CrowdStrike lawyer questioned why other airlines recovered from the outage much more quickly. He said the software company took responsibility for its actions “while Delta did not.”
A faulty software update from CrowdStrike to more than 8 million computers using Microsoft Windows disrupted airlines, banks, retailers and other businesses on July 19.
Bastian said CrowdStrike did not offer to help Delta beyond offering free consulting advice. CrowdStrike said its CEO, George Kurtz, personally contacted Bastian to offer help, but got no response.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating why Delta took longer to recover than other airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his department would also look into complaints about Delta’s customer service, including long waits for help and reports that unaccompanied minors were stranded at airports.
