Cyber attacks targeting the sites of major American airports and disrupting passenger services, before they return to work as usual, and the investigation into the source of the attack is underway.
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Cyber-attacks affected websites that provide services to travelers
The websites of several major US airports were briefly down on Monday, following cyber attacks instigated by a hacking group believed to be pro-Russia.
“Distributed Denial of Service attacks” targeted the airport websites of Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and St. Louis.
DDoS attacks flood websites and servers with erroneous traffic and confuse them, impairing or completely disabling their functions.
The attacks on US airport websites began following the hacking group KillNet published a list of targeted sites and encouraged its supporters to attack them.
The cyber-attacks only affected sites that provide services to travelers, not those involved in operations.
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta said that its site “has returned to work following an accident that made it unavailable to the public,” adding that “an investigation is underway into the accident,” noting that operations at the airport were not affected at any time.
Most of the target airport sites have returned to normal operations following being temporarily offline.
And the “Killnet” group announced, last week, its responsibility for attacks on a number of US government websites, in addition to the websites of other countries that oppose the war in Ukraine.
For its part, the US Agency for Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security said it was “aware of reports of distributed denial of service attacks targeting several US airport websites.”
“We coordinate with entities that may have been affected by these attacks and provide assistance when necessary,” a spokesperson for the agency added.