‘False, misleading and damaging’: Microsoft slams Delta for CrowdStrike outage blame

Flight delays on a Delta flight chart due to Crowdstrike outage

Microsoft and Delta aren’t happy with each other in the aftermath of July’s massive CrowdStrike outage.

Legal representation for Microsoft sent a letter to Delta’s lawyers pushing some of the blame for Delta’s flight issues that weekend onto Delta itself, per The Verge. The letter, which was sent in response to comments by Delta CEO Ed Bastian that questioned Microsoft’s competence, called Bastian’s remarks “incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation.”

Microsoft refuses to take blame for Delta’s outage issues

According to Microsoft, it offered to help Delta solve the CrowdStrike problem in the immediate aftermath of the outage at no charge, but it got turned down. Furthermore, Microsoft alleged that Delta rejected the help because the IT infrastructure that needed servicing actually belonged to another company, like IBM, not Windows.

It’s not really possible for us to determine who is right and wrong here, but it’s clear that Microsoft and Delta fundamentally disagree on what ultimately caused Delta to suffer so many flight delays and cancellations that fateful weekend.

The outage was the result of a faulty update to the CrowdStrike security software, which is not owned nor created by Microsoft. However, the update went out to millions of Windows computers around the world, resulting in widespread blue screens of death on a massive scale.