CrowdStrike Outage: Microsoft Refutes Delta's Claims, Says It Refused 'Free Assistance'
Delta's CEO Ed Bastian had previously attributed the outage to issues with Windows and CrowdStrike, seeking compensation for an estimated $500 million in losses.
Microsoft has issued a response to Delta Air Lines' recent criticisms regarding a major IT outage last month. The tech giant said that Delta refused multiple offers of free assistance, including direct outreach from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the media has reported. Delta's CEO Ed Bastian had previously attributed the outage to issues with Windows and CrowdStrike, seeking compensation for an estimated $500 million in losses.
Microsoft's Response To Delta
However, Microsoft's account paints a different picture of the incident. In a letter addressed to Delta's legal team, Mark Cheffo, representing Microsoft, as spotted by The Verge, stated: "Microsoft empathises with Delta and its customers regarding the impact of the CrowdStrike incident. But your letter and Delta's public comments are incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation."
The letter suggests that Delta's IT infrastructure might have deeper issues than just the Windows server outage. Microsoft claims it offered free assistance to Delta repeatedly in the days following the July 19th incident, but these offers were consistently turned down.
"Even though Microsoft's software had not caused the CrowdStrike incident, Microsoft immediately jumped in and offered to assist Delta at no charge following the July 19th outage," Cheffo wrote.
"Each day that followed from July 19th through July 23rd, Microsoft employees repeated their offers to help Delta. Each time, Delta turned down Microsoft's offers to help, even though Microsoft would not have charged Delta for this assistance."
Microsoft also alleges that a Delta employee claimed everything was "all good" on July 22nd, the same day the airline canceled over 1,100 flights, followed by 500 more cancellations the next day.
This response comes after Bastian's interview with CNBC where he criticised Microsoft's reliability, asking, "When was the last time you heard of a big outage at Apple?" The situation highlights the complexities of IT infrastructure management in large corporations and the potential consequences of system failures. As the dispute continues, it remains to be seen how Delta will respond to Microsoft's counterarguments.
What Was Crowdstrike Outage?
Microsoft revealed that the recent CrowdStrike-related incident impacted approximately 8.5 million Windows devices. This figure represents less than 1 per cent of Windows machines worldwide, according to a blog post authored by David Weston, Microsoft's vice president of enterprise and OS security. The outage was traced back to a recent update from CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity firm that plays a critical role in protecting high-profile and sensitive organisations.
CrowdStrike, established in 2011, primarily serves large institutions, government bodies, and critical infrastructure, including airports and financial institutions.
The company gained prominence for its involvement in high-profile cyber investigations, such as the 2014 Sony hack by North Korean attackers and the 2016 Democratic Party email breach by Russian operatives.
The malfunction is reportedly linked to CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor, a software designed to safeguard systems from cyber threats. An update to this software appears to have triggered the BSOD issue, leading to widespread system failures.
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