Dozens of US airport websites hit by cyber attack

Around 14 US airports have been temporarily offline due to hackers.

Engadget reports that hackers believed to be based in Russia temporarily disabled around 14 public American websites on Monday. LaGuardia O’Hare and LAX websites were also targeted, but most are now back online. A senior US government official said air traffic control was involved in the cyber attack. Airport communication and other important functions within the organization were not affected, he said.

The airport’s critical operations were not affected, but travelers were unable to view security wait times and other information, ABC News reported. A spokesperson for LAX confirmed that the airport’s systems were not compromised and there were no operational disruptions.

“On Monday, October 10, 2022, around 3:00 a.m., we experienced a Denial of Service attack that lasted approximately 15 minutes and caused delays in accessing the LaGuardia Airport website.” A Port Authority spokesperson said. “The Port Authority’s cybersecurity defense system was able to quickly detect the incident and resolve the issue within 15 seconds. Federal authorities were also immediately notified. There was no operational impact for the Airport Authority.”

The DDoS attack is believed to be linked to Kill net, a Russian hacking group. I also believe that the hackers are unlikely to be a government cyber group. A cybersecurity analyst said the Russian government is unlikely to be involved in the incident. Both the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Transportation Security Administration are monitoring the state of this cyberattack, he said.