Tech
Bristol Airport hit by suspected ransomware cyber attack
The Bristol Airport in the UK has confirmed that it has been hit with a cyber attack after flight information displays at the airport have been offline for three days due to an “attack similar to so-called ransomware”.
The media are reporting that the displays have been re-established at ‘key locations’ at the airport, including in departures and arrivals, but the team is still working on restoring the displays on all other locations.
Reacting to the development, spokesman for Bristol Airport James Gore told the BBC: “We believe there was an online attempt to target part of our administrative systems and that required us to take a number of applications offline as a precautionary measure, including the one that provides our data for flight information screens.
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“That was done to contain the problem and avoid any further impact on more critical systems. The indications are that this was a speculative attempt rather than a targeted attack on Bristol Airport.”
“At no point were any safety or security systems impacted or put at risk.”
“Given the number of safety and security critical systems operating at an airport, we wanted to make sure that the issue with the flight information application that experienced the problem was absolutely resolved before it was put back online.”
Ransomware is a form of malware in which a hacker encrypts all the information on a network and demands money in return for the decryption key.
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