The IT Nerd

Given the fact that CrowdStrike took out an insane amount of PCs across the planet with a software update that they didn’t QA, lawsuits over this were inevitable. And sure enough, it looks like Delta Airlines is getting ready to go down that road:

Delta Air Lines has reportedly hired a lawyer to seek compensation from Microsoft and CrowdStrike after Windows computers with CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity features crashed around the world this month, resulting in thousands of delayed and cancelled flights as computers faced the “blue screen of death.”

Delta hasn’t filed a lawsuit just yet, but the company plans to seek damages from Microsoft and CrowdStrike because of the disruption its normal business operations beginning July 19, CNBC reports. Delta has hired attorney David Boies, who fought against Microsoft on behalf of the FTC in its antitrust case against the tech giant decades ago. Delta declined to comment.

How much compensation is Delta looking for? How about $350 million to half a billion dollars? A non trivial amount. But it illustrates what a precarious position that CrowdStrike may be in. If a bunch of companies do something similar, CrowdStrike may cease to exist. Beyond that, I find it interesting that Microsoft is being included in this. At first glance, Microsoft seems to be collateral damage in this CrowdStrik fiasco. But if someone can prove that the software giant did or didn’t do something that contributed to this fiasco, I can see how they would end up being part of this lawsuit.

Get the popcorn ready. This is about to get fun. Unless you’re CrowdStrike or Microsoft.

This entry was posted on July 30, 2024 at 10:05 am and is filed under Commentary with tags CrowdStrike, Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.