On Monday, a pro-Russian hackers group ‘KillNet reportedly claimed to be behind the DDoS attacks, that temporarily took down the websites of several U.S. airports.
A similar case was witnessed by Atlanta International Airport.
Consequently, users were unable to access the websites for a few hours during the campaign. Though, the attacks did not have any impact on flight operations.
The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) authority informed about a threat on their website to the Transportation Security Administration and the FBI.
"The service interruption was limited to portions of the public facing FlyLAX.com website only. No internal airport systems were compromised and there were no operational disruptions," a spokesperson stated in an emailed statement. Adding to the statement, she said the airport’s IT Team has restored all services and is investigating the cause.
Later, the hacker group apparently posted the list of the hacked airport websites on Telegram that included 14 targeted domains, urging hackers to participate in the DDoS attack.
The Airport websites impacted by the group include Los Angeles International, Chicago O’Hare, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), the Orlando International Airport (MCO), the Denver International Airport (DIA), the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), and the sites of airports in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Hawaii.
In a Telegram post on Monday, Killnet listed other U.S. sites that could be the next potential victims of similar DDoS attacks, such as sea terminals and logistics facilities, weather monitoring centers, health care systems, subway systems, and exchanges and online trading systems.
Apparently, this DDoS attack was not the first attack by KillNet as KillNet has previously targeted many other countries that were against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These NATO countries include Italy, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, and Norway.
KillNet's DDoS attacks and those urging other threat actors to carry out are an example of what security experts determine is the tendency in recent years of geopolitical tensions, to be permeated the cyber world. As per the speculations, this campaign against the US and other NATO countries, for instance, instigates days after an explosion demolished a section of a major bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula.
