Europe’s air traffic control agency, Eurocontrol, said it had been hit by a cyberattack last week and said pro-Russian hackers had claimed responsibility for the disruption.
When you first see a headline like wall street journalis scary to read.
But dig a little deeper and you’ll see that the sky isn’t falling.
What’s really happening is that Eurocontrol’s public website is under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
The attacks appear to have started on April 19, when a pro-Kremlin hacking group known as Killnet said on Telegram that it would launch a “100-hour Eurocontrol marathon.”
Yes, this annoys people who need to go to Eurocontrol’s website and read press releases about what Eurocontrol has been doing. But it’s very different from, say, being able to actually influence people trying to fly in Europe.
According to the International Air Transport Association, air traffic is operating as normal. Yes, access to his website for Eurocontrol is affected, but air traffic control officials say “European aviation was not affected.”
Yes, it would definitely be annoying for some people if the Eurocontrol website was taken offline by a DDoS attack or made difficult to access, but the website itself could affect flight safety. It is not used for some critical operations, but rather a way to share public information.
Shame on Eurocontrol? perhaps. inconvenience? yes. reported that wall street journalEurocontrol’s approximately 2,000 employees were advised to use alternative methods of internal and external communication during the turmoil.
But if you’re on a plane this afternoon, will you have trouble sleeping?
In a Telegram, Killnet hackers said Eurocontrol was targeted for its links to NATO and support for Ukraine.
Pro-Russian activists have used Telegram to rally hackers to attack Ukraine and its allies. BBC reportsome may have something to do with the Russian military.
