Augusta’s major airline is suing Crowdstrike over cyber crisis

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Delta Air Lines, Augusta’s main air carrier, is taking civil action against Crowdstrike over the July IT outage that grounded flights and left thousands stranded.

The outage was “catastrophic” for Atlanta-based Delta, the airline said in the complaint.

Delta said it estimates the outage has cost the airline $500 million in out-of-pocket losses, along with “future revenue and serious damage to its reputation and goodwill.”

The crisis caused problems for Delta flights to and from Augusta Regional Airport, but the problem was much bigger at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s main headquarters and hub.

Most Delta fliers from Augusta have to change planes in Atlanta, and many travelers from Augusta drive directly to Atlanta to fly there.

“CrowdStrike committed a series of intentional and grossly negligent acts that caused worldwide IT outages on July 19, impacting 8.5 million computers,” the airline said in a statement. “While CrowdStrike sought to characterize its actions as mere learning opportunities, the reality is that CrowdStrike took shortcuts, bypassed certifications, and intentionally created and exploited an unauthorized door in Microsoft’s operating system through which it deployed the flawed update .”

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT:

Delta is seeking compensation for losses suffered by the IT outage.

A CrowdStrike spokesman said the company was trying to resolve the dispute — one of its lawyers said in August that CrowdStrike’s liability to Delta was less than $10 million.