American media reported that several airports within the United States experienced a cyber attack originating from Russian territory. ABC News mentioned that some of the country's largest airports were targeted by cyber attacks on Monday by an entity based in Russia. Sources stated that the systems affected at the airports do not handle air traffic control, internal airline coordination, or transportation security. However, the cyber attacks led to "preventing public access" to public web domains that report wait times and congestion at the airport.
The attacks were first reported around 3 AM Eastern Time when the airport authority informed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that LaGuardia Airport's system had been compromised. The systems at the airport were restored, but other airports across the country faced similar attacks. The websites of Des Moines International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and Chicago O'Hare International Airport were affected on Monday morning.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport reported around 10:30 AM Eastern Time that its website was functioning on backup and that "operations at the airport were not affected at any time." Los Angeles Airport stated in a statement to ABC News: "Early this morning, the FlyLAX.com website experienced a partial outage." The "service interruption was limited to a segment of the public accessing the website only, as internal airport systems were not compromised, and there were no operational disruptions." Engineers and programmers are actively working to close the technical vulnerabilities that allowed the attacks and support the more critical computer infrastructure.
