CrowdStrike says Delta’s woes aren't its fault after massive IT outage

CrowdStrike has taken a lot of flak over the enormous IT outage that brought much of the planet's computer systems to a halt last month. One thing that the company isn't willing to accept full blame for though is Delta's severe flight troubles.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last week the company had "no choice" but to seek damages. The airline canceled more than 5,000 flights and said it was looking at a cost of over $500 million in lost revenue and compensation to passengers.

However, CrowdStrike claims it offered Delta assistance several times only to be rebuffed. "CrowdStrike worked tirelessly to help its customers restore impacted systems and resume services to their customers," CrowdStrike lawyer Michael Carlinsky wrote in a letter to his counterpart at Delta. "Within hours of the incident, CrowdStrike reached out to Delta to offer assistance and ensure Delta was aware of an available remediation. Additionally, CrowdStrike's CEO personally reached out to Delta's CEO to offer onsite assistance, but received no response."

Carlinsky goes on to state that if Delta does pursue legal action, it will have to explain "why Delta's competitors, facing similar challenges, all restored operations much faster" and why it rejected free onsite help from CrowdStrike technicians "who assisted many other customers to restore operations much more quickly than Delta." The lawyer adds that CrowdStrike's liability is contractually capped "in the single-digit millions."

CrowdStrike's public relations team made similar comments last week about Delta turning down "our repeated efforts to assist it in a speedy recovery.” However, a formal letter from the company's lawyer holds a bit more weight, especially amid the threat of legal action.