Swissport International Ltd, a global airport giant, recently disclosed a blackmail software attack, claiming that the attack disrupted its IT infrastructure and services, causing flight delays.
Swissport serves 310 airports in 50 countries worldwide, providing cargo handling, security, maintenance, cleaning, and lounge reception services. The Swiss company is an important link in the global air tourism industry chain, with an annual passenger throughput of 282 million and a cargo throughput of 4.8 million tons.
According to a spokesman for Swissport’s customer Zurich Airport, the wave of cyberattacks began at 6 a.m. last Thursday (February 3), resulting in a slight delay of 22 flights on the same day, with a specific time range of 3-20 minutes.
Swissport explained that while their ground handling services can continue to operate in the absence of IT system support, some delay is unavoidable.
There is currently little detailed information available about the attack. It is unclear which blackmail software Gang is to blame, or whether business data was stolen during the attack.
So far, no extortion software company has claimed responsibility for an attack on Swissport or its website. In the last two weeks, there have also been numerous cyberattacks on European businesses. Hackers launched an attack on the German fuel transporter Outranking three days before the Swissport incident, affecting the entire German fuel delivery system.
Following the Swissport incident, network attacks disrupted the operation of a major oil transfer depot in Belgium. At the moment, relevant departments are conducting active investigations.
Although none of the aforementioned events appear to have caused serious harm, they do serve as a reminder that, despite the fact that law enforcement authorities recently dealt a heavy blow to the extortion software Gang, these network outlaws remain active and have no intention of settling.
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