CrowdStrike rejects Delta Air Lines claims over flight woes

CrowdStrike rejects Delta Air Lines claims over flight woes
Delta canceled more than 6,000 flights over a six-day period, impacting more than 500,000 passengers. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 05 August 2024
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CrowdStrike rejects Delta Air Lines claims over flight woes

CrowdStrike rejects Delta Air Lines claims over flight woes
  • CrowdStrike reiterated its apology to the airline operator
  • Within hours of the outage incident, CrowdStrike reached out to Delta to offer assistance

WASHINGTON: CrowdStrike on Sunday rejected a claim by Delta Air Lines that it should be blamed for flight disruptions following a July 19 global outage sparked by a faulty update, and suggested it had minimal potential liability.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last week the outage had cost the US airline $500 million and that it planned to take legal action to get compensation from the cybersecurity firm.
CrowdStrike reiterated its apology to the airline operator, but said in a letter from an external lawyer that it is “highly disappointed by Delta’s suggestion that CrowdStrike acted inappropriately and strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed misconduct.”
Delta canceled more than 6,000 flights over a six-day period, impacting more than 500,000 passengers. It faces a US Transportation Department investigation into why it took so much longer for it to recover from the outage than other airlines.
The CrowdStrike letter said that “any liability by CrowdStrike is contractually capped at an amount in the single-digit millions.”
Delta declined to comment on the CrowdStrike letter.
Within hours of the outage incident, CrowdStrike reached out to Delta to offer assistance.
“Additionally, CrowdStrike’s CEO personally reached out to Delta’s CEO to offer onsite assistance, but received no response,” the letter said.
Bastian told CNBC last week CrowdStrike had offered “free consulting advice to help us.”
Delta told US lawmakers last week in a letter seen by Reuters that CrowdStrike’s faulty update “impacted more than half of Delta computers, including many of Delta’s workstations at every airport in the Delta network.”
The letter added Delta’s “complex IT system which distributes and synchronizes all our data, including the data that feeds our crew tracking and gating software, required manual recovery.”
The CrowdStrike letter added that if Delta files suit, it will need to answer “why Delta’s competitors, facing similar challenges, all restored operations much faster” and “why Delta turned down free onsite help from CrowdStrike professionals who assisted many other customers to restore operations much more quickly than Delta.”
A CrowdStrike spokesperson said “public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party. We hope that Delta will agree to work cooperatively to find a resolution.”


Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova

Updated 7 sec ago
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Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova

Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova
The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression
“The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine“

KYIV: Ukraine has arrested a Russian-Ukrainian dual national extradited from Moldova charged with promoting the Kremlin’s invasion, Kyiv’s security service said Tuesday.
The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression, facing a possible life sentence.
“The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine,” the security service said in a statement.
It accused Chystilin of “providing assistance” to Russian special services, organizing pro-Moscow conferences in Europe and “interference in election processes in Eastern and Central Europe in favor of Moscow.”
The security service said he was arrested after an event in Moldova when he tried to return to Moscow.
An SBU spokesman, Artem Dekhtyarenko, told AFP that Moldova then extradited Chystilin to Ukraine “over the weekend.”
Dekhtyarenko said he has both Ukrainian and Russian passports.
Ukrainian prosecutors said Chystilin had acted as a Kremlin “mouthpiece” and was detained for “developing and implementing information warfare strategy against Ukraine.”
“While in Moldova, he strengthened the Kremlin’s information influence on the domestic and foreign policy of a sovereign state,” Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said in a statement.
The SBU said Chystilin had also worked as an assistant to Sergei Glazyev, a former Kremlin adviser known for his hawkish positions.
Russian state media quoted a friend of Chystilin, Igor Kaldare, as saying that the dual national was organizing a “regional security” conference in Bucharest and was arrested by Moldovan security services.

Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane

Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
Updated 7 min 59 sec ago
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Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane

Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
  • Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary “given the projected trajectory and strength” of the storm

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to remain at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, which is bearing down on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary “given the projected trajectory and strength” of the storm.
It was not clear when the trip might be rescheduled. Biden had promised to go to Africa during his term in office, which ends in January.


UK PM Starmer rules out total ban on arms exports to Israel

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (File/Reuters)
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (File/Reuters)
Updated 31 min 11 sec ago
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UK PM Starmer rules out total ban on arms exports to Israel

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (File/Reuters)
  • Sir Keir warns that defensive weapons must continue to be sent in the face of Iranian threats, proxy activities
  • Remarks come after French President Macron calls for halt on arms sales, demanding a return to a ‘political solution’

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he would “never” ban all arms sales to Israel.

The Labour leader made the claim during questions in the House of Commons on Monday, adding he believed Israel has a right to defend itself.

“If the sale of weapons for defensive use by Israel were banned, that is a position I could not countenance a year after Oct 7. It’s not a position I could countenance in the face of attacks by Iran,” Sir Keir told Parliament.

“The idea that we could say we support Israel’s right to defend herself, and at the same time deprive her of the means to do so, is so wholly inconsistent that it will never be my position.”

The UK government suspended 30 arms export licenses to Israel last month over fears they could be used to break international law. However, 32 other licenses remain.

The prime minister received criticism for his stance, with Zarah Sultana MP, currently suspended from the Labour Party, telling Sir Keir to do what is “morally and legally right” and ban “all arms sales” to Israel, including components for F-35 fighter jets.

On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms exports to Israel after it invaded Lebanon.

“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” he said.

Sir Keir echoed the need for a political solution to the crisis on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

“Make no mistake, the region can’t take another year of this. All sides must step back from the brink and find the courage of restraint,” Sir Keir said.

US President Joe Biden also used the anniversary to tell Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Washington would “never give up until we bring all of the remaining hostages home safely.”


Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict

Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict
Updated 46 min 7 sec ago
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Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict

Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict
  • Norwegian police officers, who are normally unarmed, will now carry guns nationwide as a result of the decision
  • “It is primarily the threat to Jewish and Israeli targets that has been further intensified,” the statement said

OSLO: Norway has raised its terrorism threat assessment to the second-highest level due to an increased risk of attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets, the national police directorate said on Tuesday.
Norwegian police officers, who are normally unarmed, will now carry guns nationwide as a result of the decision by the PST security service to raise the threat level, the directorate said.
“PST raises the terror threat level in Norway from moderate to high as a result of the ongoing escalation of the conflict in the Middle East,” the police said in a statement.
“It is primarily the threat to Jewish and Israeli targets that has been further intensified,” the statement said.
National Police Commissioner Benedicte Bjoernland said there was an increased likelihood of attempted terrorism.
.”..we have a number of measures in place to protect the population,” she said in a statement.
Neighbouring Sweden in August last year raised its terrorist alert to the second-highest level after Qur'an burnings outraged Muslims and triggered threats from militants.


UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots

UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots
Updated 08 October 2024
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UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots

UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots
  • MI5 boss Ken McCallum said that Russian intelligence was seeking to cause ‘mayhem’ in Britain
  • Under-18s represent 13 percent of people being investigated by the spy agency for possible involvement in terror activities

LONDON: The chief of Britain’s domestic intelligence service on Tuesday blamed extreme right-wing ideologies for a “staggering” rise in the number of children being investigated for terrorism.
MI5 boss Ken McCallum also said that Russian intelligence was seeking to cause “mayhem” in Britain because of its support for Ukraine and that his agency had investigated growing numbers of Iran-backed plots.
Under-18s represent 13 percent of people being investigated by the spy agency for possible involvement in terror activities, McCallum said.
He told reporters at MI5’s Counter Terrorism Operations Center in London that the number marked “a threefold increase in the last three years.”
McCallum said the Internet was the “biggest factor” driving the rise, describing how easily youngsters can access “inspirational and instructional material” from their bedrooms.
He said the intelligence service was seeing “far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism” and singled out “canny” Internet memes.
“Extreme right-wing terrorism in particular skews heavily toward young people, driven by propaganda that shows a canny understanding of online culture,” he added.
“It’s not really a consistent single ideology on the extreme right-wing side and that is what has skewed the numbers most heavily.”
The UK terrorist threat level remains at “substantial” — the third highest on five — meaning an attack is likely.
MI5 and the police have disrupted more than 40 late-stage attack plots since March 2017, saving “numerous lives,” McCallum said.
He added that the Daesh group had “resumed efforts to export terrorism” and that in the last year inquiries into plots by hostile states had surged by 48 percent.
According to McCallum, Russia’s intelligence service had tried to cause “mayhem” in the UK because of Britain’s support for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, MI5 has responded to 20 Iran-backed plots since January 2022 that presented potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents, he added.