CrowdStrike Hit With Lawsuit Over Global Outage Impacting Air Travel, Plaintiffs Say Cybersecurity Firm Should Pay Compensatory And Punitive Damages

CrowdStrike Inc. CRWD is facing legal action from air travelers affected by a massive global computer outage last month.

What Happened: On Monday, three passengers filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the cybersecurity company in the federal court in Austin, Texas, reported Reuters.

The plaintiffs allege that CrowdStrike was negligent in testing and deploying its software, which led to the outage, affecting air travel, banks, hospitals, and emergency lines worldwide.

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The lawsuit claims that the outage forced passengers to incur additional costs for accommodation, meals, and alternative travel. Some even missed work or experienced health issues due to sleeping on airport floors, the report said.

The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages from CrowdStrike.

“We believe this case lacks merit and we will vigorously defend the company,” CrowdStrike said in a statement to Reuters.

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Why It Matters: The outage, which affected over 8 million computers, was due to a flawed software update. 

Previously, Delta Air Lines DAL also expressed its intention to take legal action against CrowdStrike. Delta CEO, Ed Bastian, publicly criticized Microsoft’s platform for its “fragility,” while praising Apple for its stability.

In response to Delta’s decision to pursue damages, CrowdStrike claimed that the airline did not respond to their offer of help during the outage. According to the cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz personally reached out to Delta’s CEO but received no response.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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