Metro A flurry of cyberattacks that grounded planes from Dallas to Berlin were designed to sow chaos and deter ordinary people from going about their lives, an expert has said.
Disruption swept some of the world’s biggest airports last weekend after an air traffic outage brought flights across the US to a standstill and a cyber attack crippled check-in and boarding systems at Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin.
Then, in another incident, mysterious drones were spotted flying over four airports in Denmark – Aalborg, Sonderborg and Esbjerg, as well as at the Skrydstrup airbase – last night and this morning.
This came after drones were spotted hovering above Copenhagen and Oslo’s airports earlier this week.
Dr Daniel Gardham, from the University of Surrey Centre for Cyber Security, said it is ‘unsurprising’ that the aviation industry has been hit.
‘There’s a reason the attackers are going after these very visible targets, he told Metro.
‘One is that it affects the everyday person – it brings your attention to these matters, whether you care about it or not.
‘And secondly, with airports in particular, they have different systems in place that have to work together so it runs more efficiently.’
These systems range from software managing the conveyor belt and baggage to the fuel pumps in the aircraft, which opens airports up to a larger possibility of being attacked.
‘It is unsurprising that they are able to find vulnerabilities at an airport, just because of the scale of the operation, and the fact that it comprises so many pieces that have to work together,’ he said.
He added that while the complexities are unlikely to disappear anytime soon despite advancements in AI and technology, an average traveller shouldn’t lose sleep over possible cyber-related flight disruption.
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