A computer attack hit the systems of Collins AerospaceAmerican company specialized in solutions for the aeronautical sector and part of the giant RTX. The target of the attack were not the airports itself, but i IT systems that manage electronic checks and boarding procedurescausing a domino effect in European airports. London Heathrow, Brussels And Berlin They are among the most affected airports, with dozens of canceled flights and hundreds of delays. In several cases, the passengers were forced to long, while the staff resorted to manual methods to record luggage and validate the boarding cards. Collins Aerospace confirmed that the software involved is Muse (Multi-user System Environment), a platform that allows multiple airlines to share check-in and gate banks, optimizing spaces but making the central system a critical point in case of attack.
For passengers, the immediate consequences concern hours of delay, sudden cancellations and the need to constantly inquire about the state of their flight. The story shows how dependence on highly interconnected digital systems makes the aviation a sector particularly vulnerable to cyberattacchi and makes serious reflections arise on how much computer security is now an integral part of transport security.
The first effects of the attack visible already on Friday evening
The effects of the attack have already revealed themselves Friday eveningwhen Brussels airport reported the first malfunctions. The automatic systems were no longer usable, forcing staff to manually manage operations. This means filling out hand documents, checking travel documents one by one and entering the data on emergency terminals: slow procedures that overloaded the entire operating chain. This Saturday morning the situation worsenedwith deleted flights to various destinations, including Rum raisin, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Kigali And Thessaloniki. The overload was so important that Eurocontrolthe intergovernmental body, of both a civil and military nature, which brings together 42 European countries and which coordinates the safety and management of air traffic in the old continent, even asked to Reduce the number of flights at the start and arrival on Brusselsin order to lighten the pressure on the system.
London Heathrowthe busiest European airport, on your own account, confirms the problems in question attributable to Collins Aerospace, although not making references to IT attacks:
Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and boarding systems for various airlines in numerous airports all over the world, is encountered a technical problem that could cause delays to passengers departing. While the supplier works to quickly solve the problem, we recommend passengers to check the state of their flight with the airline before traveling. Please arrive no earlier than three hours before a long -range flight or two hours before a national flight. Other colleagues are available in check-in areas to assist and help to minimize inconvenience.
According to data from air tracking platforms such as Flighttradar24 And Flightwareon Saturday morning alone they counted Over 100 late flights to Heathrow, 70 in Brussels and about 15 in Berlin. Although some companies, such as Easyjet, have declared that their program would not have been compromised, the inconveniences concerned above all the companies that rely more on the Muse software. Collins Aerospace, for its part, confirmed to the ‘Independent the existence of computer problems with the following declaration:
We learned of an IT interruption of our Muse software in some airports. We are actively working to solve the problem and restore full functionality for our customers as quickly as possible. The impact is limited to the electronic check-in of customers and the delivery of luggage and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations. We will share further details as soon as they are available.
An element that has particularly attracted the attention of experts is the vulnerability of such a central infrastructure, such as Collins Aerospace. The company is not a marginal actor in the sector, but it is a key supplier who serves numerous airports and airlines all over the world. That’s why Paul Charlesanalyst in the travel sector, defined “disconcerting that a giant like Collins has been hit by a similar attack».
Hypothesis on the type of attack suffered by Collins Aerospace
While the Collins Aerospace technicians work to restore the correct functioning of its systems, the former advance hypothesis on the type of attack immediately. At the moment It is difficult to determine exactly what happened. The conceivable scenarios are many. According to experts of Cybersecurity360 these could include attacks ransomware (malware that encrypt the data and require a ransom to unlock them), Wiper (malware that destroy the data on the servers), Ddos attacks against bees (they consist of thousands or millions of requests sent simultaneously to the API services of a system to throw it down) or the theft of credentials Used for authentication to cloud systems.
It is important to emphasize that, when we write, neither the Avionics (i.e. the set of electronic and IT systems that are on board the aircraft) nor the traffic control systems seem to have been affected: the impact concerned “only” (so to speak) the services to passengers.
