An attempted ransomware assault halted the operations of budget carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday night, leaving passengers stranded for hours across the country’s airports on Wednesday morning.
The controversy started after a SpiceJet passenger, Mudit Shejwar, flagged the delay of his flight to Dharamshala even after 80 minutes of the boarding formalities were completed.
“On board flight SG2345 to Dharmshala, it's been already 80 mins since we boarded the plane, we have not taken off yet, the only communication is of some server down and issue with paper work for fuel, is this for real,” Mudit tweeted, tagging Spicejet, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Airport Authority of India and the Delhi airport authority.
“Certain SpiceJet systems faced an attempted ransomware attack last night that impacted and slowed down morning flight departures today. Our IT team has contained and rectified the situation, and flights are operating normally now,” the airline tweeted.
However, the reply did not sit well with the passenger, who said that all the passengers were stuck on the aircraft for close to four hours without food. “Operating normally?? We are stuck here since 3 hrs and 45 mins? Neither cancelling nor operating, sitting in the flight not even the airport. No breakfast, no response,” Shejwar replied.
The airline did not disclose whether it had paid the attacker. Industry sources said the attack was identical to the one on Indigo in December 2020. Then, too, the airline had confirmed the attack and said some segments of data servers had been breached. However, little is known yet regarding the outcome of an investigation, or whether any payment was made.
Last year, over 78 percent of Indian organizations surveyed were hit with ransomware attacks, up from 68 percent in 2020. The average ransom paid by Indian organizations to get their data encrypted was $1.2 million, says a report by British cybersecurity firm Sophos released earlier this month.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, SpiceJet is the second-largest airline in India, operating a fleet of more than 90 aircraft, with a market share of 13.6% as of March 2019.
In 2021, SpiceJet went through severe financial trouble result of grounding its fleet due to COVID-19 restrictions, The struggling airline’s accumulated losses neared ₹5,478 crore, while its liabilities exceeded assets by ₹6,347 crore during the same period.
