The websites of several major domestic airports momentarily stopped working on Monday due to a cyberattack promoted by a pro-Russian hacker group called KillNet. The attacks affected the websites of the following airports: Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and St. Louis. The tactic used is known as denial-of-service (DDOS) attack, which involves taking a network offline to make the service inaccessible to legitimate users.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport has opened an investigation into the cause of the incident, though it noted that operations at the airport were not affected.
🚨ATL's website(https://t.co/mbOm4q5YcL) is up and running after an incident early this morning that made it inaccessible to the public. An investigation into the cause of the incident is underway. At no time were operations at the airport impacted.
- Atlanta Airport (@ATLairport) October 10, 2022
KillNet is known for attacking both public and private organizations, mostly from Western countries which support Ukraine in the war with Russia,
On Aug. 1, KillNet and its founder, who goes by the name "Killmilk," claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the Lockheed Martin defense corporation. The attack came as retaliation for the United States' supplying of HIMARS systems to Ukraine. Killmilk said the attack targeted Lockheed Martin's production systems and also targeted private information about the company's employees in order to harm them.
All websites affected by the most recent KillNet airport attack are now up and running correctly.