At least two North American airlines have become victims of crime hackers as cybersecurity companies warn that infamous cybercrime groups are targeting the aviation industry.
Westjet and Hawaii Airlines said in a June statement that they are responding to cyberattacks.
American Airlines also experienced technical issues on Friday, but it is unclear whether it is related by hackers.
“Technology issues have affected the connectivity of some systems and we are working with our partners to completely resolve the issue,” an American Airlines spokesperson said in a statement. “We've had a delay as a result, but we haven't canceled the flight at this time.”
Cybersecurity companies that work directly with hackers' hit companies generally refrain from talking about specific victims and cite private agreements. But both Google and Palo Alto Networks said on Friday they were looking at a particularly effective cybercriminal group attacking large companies called spiders scattered by the cybersecurity industry, and were trying to hack companies involved in aviation.
Scattered Spiders are a loosely affiliated group of young English-speaking men who are very skilled at sweet talk about sensitive computer access in large corporations. From there, they often hand over access to external cybercriminals who install ransomware. This will lock your computer with malicious software, which will become inoperable and will require payment of the Fear Tor.
The group was tied up by attacks at a Las Vegas casino in 2023 and at a UK department store earlier this year. After Google warned that the scattered Spider was targeting American retailers, a cyber attack set foot on Top-Hall Foods suppliers, leading to empty shelves around the country.
Charles Carmakal, CTO at Mandiant, Google's cloud security company, said in an emailed statement that he is tracking “several incidents in the airline and transportation sector.”
“We are still working on attribution and analysis, but given the actor's habit of focusing on a single sector, I suggest that the industry immediately take steps to strengthen the system,” he said.
Details regarding the impact of the attack on airlines are still sparse.
A Westjet spokesperson told NBC News in an email that it was the first thing he noticed was hacked on June 13th and that he had made “great progress” to resolve it. Hawaiian Airlines found it hacked on Monday in an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, saying “the flights are currently operating safely and on schedule.”
Neither company answered questions about whether flights were cancelled or delayed due to the attack.