What do we know about the security disruption of the airport?
Last Friday (September 19), a cybercatac created significant disruption for several European airports, mostly Berlin, Brussels and London Heathro.
The European Union’s Cyber Security Agency, Anisa, said on Monday that a third-party ransomware attack targeted a check-in and boarding system on a widely used software operated by the US company Collins Aerospace.
The Brussels Airport on Sunday canceled half of its flights and canceled and delayed in Berlin and London and the impact was still felt on Monday. Cyber security expert, Professor Alan Woodward told DW, that it could not end.
“People will accept the delay, but they want to be informed. One of the things that disappoints people is sitting at the airport, not knowing what is on Earth. Is it to affect flights in two, three, four days?”
What is the problem due to the airport cyber attack?
While Collins said that delay in checking more goods drops “may decrease with manual check-in operations” extensive cancellations suggest that the knock-on effects of the employees to write the tags to write and perform the check-on checks to write manuals. Therefore, the dependence of the major global infrastructure on the IT system has been highlighted, which can be compromised.
Woodward said that it has been invested under some firms, stating that they could target other airports in the attack. “If it had been a ransomware attack, why would only three airports be affected?” Oho. Colins’ services are used in more than 150 airports worldwide.
For Woodward, who advised the European Union Police agency Europeol and has worked for the UK government on such matters, the answer may be that the affected people used to establish an agreement on Friday or, more harassing that the attackers know about violations that we know about leverage.
“It can now be a case of colins, trying to get out a version, they may be clean with any malicious software. Or it may be that the attackers are still in some central systems that everyone uses and they are trying to get the colins out saying: ‘Our proof of the concept was our proof.
What is the latest?
All the airports involved are still somewhat affected. A BBC report On Monday, an internal memorandum for Heathro employees underlined that 1.000 computers could be “corrupt” and most of the work to bring back online is to be done in the person and not from far away. In Brussels, 140 were binned out of Sunday’s 276 prescribed outbound flights, while the website of Berlin Airport still warns “long waiting” due to “outage on a service provider”.
The same report claimed that a system reboot by Collins was not enough to solve the issue, still found in the system with hackers, adding weight to Woodward’s principle. Colins are still referring to a “cyber phenomenon” instead of an attack and say they are updating their system.
Who can be behind the airport ransomware attacks?
So far there may be some less office information, especially those who can target colins and, in detail, at airports.
Cybercity Expert Woodward said that it is possible that “normal suspects” of countries like China, Iran and North Korea, can search to attack to attack, which use criminal gangs as proxy. But one stands out. “If there is a nation state behind it, they play sharp and loose and are very aggressive. And those who do so normally, and have the ability, are Russia.”
Woodward insisted that, without any official information, it was somewhat speculative and “it could be a group of teenagers in their bedrooms that we know.”
Given the major disruption in people’s lives, he called for more transparency from those companies involved. “Are they silent because they do not know, and they are trying hard to find out? After 72 hours, are they still not intelligent what has happened? It will be almost more worrying.”
What can be the economic impact of the airport cyber attack?
In the immediate period, financial hits for airports and airlines due to low service and financial hit for airports and refunds, compensation, deficiency in footfall and airports will be reduced to payments from airports.
For a long time, there are more serious issues for colins, owned by the American RTX Corporation, which works in weapons and aircraft engines as well as cyber security. Woodward said, “Everyone is going to see Colins.
This is not clear at the point whether any personal data has been violated in the attack. If it is added to woodward, it can be more severe. “Rainmware attacks not only apply tasks with gum, but they steal the data and take it away. So if you repair your system, they say,” Okay, we have still got your data, but we are holding it for ransom. “
Penal fines for violations of GDPR (General Data Safety Regulation) are imposed by individual countries and can be very large. In 2023, the Meta, which owns the company Facebook, fined a record € 1.2BN ($ 1.4 billion) by the Data Protection Commission of Ireland for the break of GDPR rules and hence paid a huge amount in another country.
Edited by: Rob Madge