The global tech outage sparked by a fumbled CrowdStrike update affecting Microsoft Windows computers last month not only caused major disruptions to countless companies' operations, it led to public relations headaches for impacted firms – especially Delta Air Lines.
The July 19 incident crippled the airline industry, but Delta was the hardest hit, taking more than a week to get operations fully online while its rivals were back up in running within days.
People looking for missing bags wait in line to speak with Delta Air Lines baggage in the Delta Air Lines baggage claim area Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on July 24, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The situation has devolved into a blame game set to play out in legal battles.
Delta is considering legal action seeking compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the $500 million the airline says it lost due to the meltdown. Meanwhile, Delta itself was hit with a class-action lawsuit from its own customers who say they have not received the compensation they're due from canceled and delayed flights related to the incident.
But in the meantime, the companies are left with defending their reputations in the court of public opinion.
Nathan Miller, the founder and CEO of strategic communications firm Miller Ink, told FOX Business the situation "reflects the next generation of PR crises where the conventional wisdom that we've held for decades no longer applies."
Miller said it shows how interconnected the world is and how much we rely on others' competence, and also, how "a few lines of code that were written poorly and not tested properly can create billions of dollars in damage across multiple companies and an incredible amount of inconvenience for millions of people."
CrowdStrike has actively taken responsibility for the tech outage from its update last month and been transparent in its response, Miller says. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
While there is a lot of finger-pointing going on right now, the PR guru praised CrowdStrike's handling of its messaging in the aftermath, but says Delta appears to have some work to do.
Miller pointed out that CrowdStrike President Michael Sentonas showed up at the Las Vegas Def Con hacking conference over the weekend to personally accept the Pwnie Award for the most "Epic Fail." While there, Miller said, the CrowdStrike chief used his appearance as an opportunity to talk about how seriously the company is taking the failure from last month, and as a way of accepting responsibility.
Last week, Delta declined to comment about the class-action suit from passengers when reached by FOX Business, and instead pointed to posts on its website explaining what the airline is doing to make things right with customers who were impacted by the incident.
Acknowledging that many companies decline to discuss ongoing lawsuits, Miller said Delta's decision not to comment directly on the legal action from customers was a missed opportunity to communicate authentically. Even if there was nothing Delta could have done to mitigate the tech outage, they probably could have done more for travelers who were displaced, he argued.
"Every human makes mistakes, and every company mistakes," he said. "The first step is to acknowledge the mistake…because it communicates to your stakeholders that [you've] learned from this situation – and you have to make them credibly believe that you've learned and that you're going to take steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again."