Several infrastructures have been targeted, including those of Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York. The websites of major US airports were briefly taken down on Monday after a pro-Russian hacker group called for them to be hacked.
They were victims of a denial of service (DDoS) attack, which involves targeting a computer system by flooding it with messages or connection requests. These sites were targeted after the pro-Russian hacker group known as “Killnet” published a list of their websites and encouraged their followers to attack them.
No disruption at airports
No disruption to the operation of the airports has been reported, the operation having only affected the web interface dedicated to the public, which usually displays information on flights and services.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport later tweeted that its website “was up and running after an incident early this morning rendered it unavailable to the public.”
“Research to determine the causes of the incident is underway,” he said, adding that “at no time was the operation of the airport affected.” Most of the websites of the targeted airports now seem to be functioning normally.
Killnet claimed responsibility for cyberattacks carried out last week on several official US government websites.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it was “aware of reports of DDoS attacks targeting multiple US airport websites”. “We are coordinating with potentially affected entities and offering our assistance, if needed,” an agency spokesperson said.