Recently, automatic check-in systems at many European airports have been attacked by third-party ransomware. The European Union Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) confirmed this incident on Monday, highlighting the increasing cybersecurity risks faced by critical infrastructure and industries.
Since last Friday, the automatic check-in system provided by Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technology Group), has been attacked by hackers, causing dozens of flights and thousands of passengers to be blocked. As of Monday, many major European airports have not returned to normal operations.
ENISA said in a statement that law enforcement agencies were involved in investigating the malware incident, but did not disclose the source of the attack. Ransomware locks the victim's data and demands a ransom to restore access. Recently, high-end car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover was also forced to suspend production activities due to cyber attacks.
Rafe Pilling, director of threat intelligence at British cybersecurity company Sophos, pointed out that ransomware attacks tend to target high-profile organizations. Although the exposure of these incidents has increased in Europe, the actual frequency of occurrence has not increased significantly. "Large-scale destructive attacks that can affect the physical world are still rare exceptions," Pilling told Reuters.
A survey of about 1,000 companies by German industry association Bitkom showed that ransomware is the most common form of cyberattack, and one in every seven companies has paid a ransom.
Many airports have not yet restored automatic check-in systems. Corinthian Aviation Systems said on September 22 that it was working with affected airports (including Brussels, London Heathrow, etc.) to complete system repairs. A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said emergency measures had been implemented by airlines at the airport.
Berlin Airport saw a surge in passenger traffic due to the marathon, but automatic check-in has not been restored and some flights were delayed for more than an hour. Some passengers described the boarding process as returning to the early days of civil aviation - using handwritten boarding passes. Brussels Airport provides online check-in for passengers through iPads and laptops. On Monday, 60 of about 550 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled. Data from aviation analysis company Cirium showed that Brussels Airport canceled 29 flights that day, and only 42% of the flights could take off within one hour of the planned time. Dublin Airport was less affected and some processes were changed to manual operations.
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Cyberattacks paralyzed many airports in Europe, including Heathrow and Brussels