News CrowdStrike outage sparks global chaos with airline, bank and other disruptions [Update: Delta and CrowdStrike in legal battle]

[The Helper]

Over 2,500 flights were canceled and more than 8,000 were delayed in the U.S.

A wave of IT outages swept across the globe Friday morning, causing thousands of flight cancellations and stalling internal and external systems across a variety of industries including hospitals, banks, stock exchanges and other institutions, as some Microsoft-based computers ceased to work.

CrowdStrike -- an American cybersecurity technology firm that provides cloud workload protection, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services -- said the outage is not a due to a cyber attack; it was caused by a software issue that has been identified and a fix had been deployed.

Some systems can be fixed and back up and running immediately -- but for others it "could be hours, could be a bit longer" before everything is back up and running, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told CNBC in an on-air interview. For some customers, it will take more than rebooting systems to work through fixes.

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted," Kurtz said earlier Friday.

CrowdStrike outage sparks global chaos with airline, bank and other disruptions

IT outages have been reported across the globe as airlines, airports, banks and media companies have suddenly experienced ongoing disruptions.

abcnews.go.com

 

[The Helper]

Global IT chaos persists as Crowdstrike boss admits outage could take time to fix

It remains a little unclear exactly what caused the global IT outage that grounded thousands of flights, stalled banking and healthcare services, and badly hit other sectors today.

While there are signs of the chaos lifting, the question over quite how long the impacts persist remains - Crowdstrike says it could take "some time".

Global IT chaos persists as Crowdstrike boss admits outage could take time to fix

Airports, banking and healthcare were all hit when a Crowdstrike update triggered huge Microsoft outages.

www.bbc.com

 

[The Helper]

CrowdStrike update that caused global outage likely skipped checks, experts say

It’s unclear how that faulty code got into the update and why it wasn’t detected before being released to customers.

Security experts said CrowdStrike’s routine update of its widely used cybersecurity software, which caused clients’ computer systems to crash globally on Friday, apparently did not undergo adequate quality checks before it was deployed.

The latest version of its Falcon Sensor software was meant make CrowdStrike clients’ systems more secure against hacking by updating the threats it defends against. But faulty code in the update files resulted in one of the most widespread tech outages in recent years for companies using Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Global banks, airlines, hospitals and government offices were disrupted. CrowdStrike released information to fix affected systems, but experts said getting them back online would take time as it required manually weeding out the flawed code.

“What it looks like is, potentially, the vetting or the sandboxing they do when they look at code, maybe somehow this file was not included in that or slipped through,” said Steve Cobb, chief security officer at Security Scorecard, which also had some systems impacted by the issue.

CrowdStrike update that caused global outage likely skipped checks, experts say

It’s unclear how that faulty code got into the update and why it wasn’t detected before being released to customers.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[tom_mai78101]

Delta Air Lines Meltdown Probed by Transportation Department​

Federal transportation officials have launched an investigation into Delta Air Lines as the carrier struggled to rebound from an operations meltdown that led to thousands of canceled flights and stranded passengers.

Delta’s turmoil, spurred by last week’s CrowdStrike-driven outage that struck businesses around the globe, extended into a fifth day.

Delta had canceled around 475 flights, or about 13% of its mainline schedule, on Tuesday. It has canceled more than 5,000 flights since the outage began, according to data provider FlightAware, but the tally is even higher when counting flights from its regional partners.

Other major carriers have largely rebounded from the outage, while Delta has cautioned that cancellations would likely stretch on for a few more days. Tuesday, the airline said in an employee message that it is “moving firmly in the right direction.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation “will leverage the full extent of our investigative and enforcement power to ensure the rights of Delta’s passengers are upheld,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday.

The department said its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection is investigating Delta in connection with the airline’s widespread flight disruptions and reports of what it called concerning customer-service failures. Delta’s Atlanta hub, the epicenter of its operation, has borne the heaviest disruption and been swamped by stranded passengers, long customer-service lines and lost bags piling up.

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/delta-air-lines-meltdown-probed-by-transportation-department-d3395700

 

[tom_mai78101]

Delta CEO Says CrowdStrike Tech Outage Cost It $500 Million​

Delta Air Lines DAL -4.46%decrease; red down pointing triangle Chief Executive Ed Bastian said the carrier took a $500 million hit from the CrowdStrike CRWD -0.36%decrease; red down pointing triangle
technology outage that hurt its operations.

With more than 5,000 flight cancellations over several days, Delta faced deeper disruption and took days longer than rivals to get back on track after the outage knocked key systems offline. The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating how the airline handled the disruption and its customer response.

Delta has hired prominent litigator David Boies, chairman of the firm Boies Schiller Flexner, and notified CrowdStrike and Microsoft MSFT -3.06%decrease; red down pointing triangle
to prepare for litigation, according to letters reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Bastian said in a CNBC interview Wednesday from Paris that the airline has no choice but to seek to recover its losses.

“Between not just the loss of revenue, but the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels. We did everything we could to take care of our customers over that time,” he said.

CrowdStrike said in a statement: “We are aware of the reporting, but have no knowledge of a lawsuit and have no further comment.” Microsoft didn’t comment.

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/delta-ceo-says-crowdstrike-tech-outage-costs-could-reach-500-million-3b7f5a13

 

[tom_mai78101]

CrowdStrike to Delta: Stop Pointing the Finger at Us​

CrowdStrike says that it isn’t to blame for Delta Air Lines’ dayslong meltdown following the tech outage caused by the cybersecurity company, and that it isn’t responsible for all of the money that the carrier says it lost.

In a letter responding to the airline’s recent public comments and hiring of a prominent lawyer, CrowdStrike said Delta’s threats of a lawsuit have contributed to a “misleading narrative” that the cybersecurity company was responsible for the airline’s tech decisions and response to the outage.

“Should Delta pursue this path, Delta will have to explain to the public, its shareholders, and ultimately a jury why CrowdStrike took responsibility for its actions—swiftly, transparently, and constructively—while Delta did not,” wrote Michael Carlinsky, an attorney at law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Delta didn’t comment on the CrowdStrike letter.

The letter to Delta’s legal team Sunday evening is the latest move in a growing conflict between the cybersecurity firm and the airline, which was thrown into several days of disarray following the outage.

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/crowdstrike-to-delta-stop-pointing-the-finger-at-us-5b2eea6c

 

[tom_mai78101]

Microsoft says Delta ignored Satya Nadella’s offer of CrowdStrike help​

Microsoft has responded to Delta Air Lines’ criticism of Windows and CrowdStrike after the giant IT outage last month. Delta CEO Ed Bastian wants compensation from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the estimated $500 million Delta lost due to the outage. Now, Microsoft says Delta refused its free help on multiple occasions and even ignored an email from CEO Satya Nadella to Bastian.

“Microsoft empathizes 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,” says Mark Cheffo, co-chair of Dechert’s global litigation practice, in a letter on behalf of Microsoft to Delta’s lawyers.

The letter, embedded below, aims to paint a very different picture of the incident following Bastian’s comments in an interview with CNBC last week. Bastian called Microsoft fragile and asked, “When was the last time you heard of a big outage at Apple?” He also revealed that more than 40,000 of the company’s servers had been hit by CrowdStrike’s faulty update. Microsoft’s letter suggests that Delta’s problems might run a lot deeper than its Windows server outage, though.

“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,” says the letter from Cheffo. “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 says Delta ignored Satya Nadella’s offer of CrowdStrike help

Delta repeatedly refused Microsoft’s offer of free help.

www.theverge.com