Port of Seattle investigating ‘unauthorized activity’ that led to cyberattack; no timeline for outage fix

Port of Seattle investigating ‘unauthorized activity’ that led to cyberattack; no timeline for outage fix Taylor Soper

Some flight information displays were not working Sunday due to an outage at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. (Photo by Kevin Lisota)

The Port of Seattle continues to deal with an ongoing cyberattack that began Saturday and was still affecting various operations through Sunday, including at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The Port detected “unauthorized activity” on its systems Saturday morning in what it believes was a cyberattack, said Lance Lyttle, managing director of aviation for Sea-Tac Airport.

“We can’t yet say when this will be resolved,” Lyttle said at a media press conference Sunday.

The Port is working with outside experts to conduct its investigation into the cause of the outage, Lyttle said.

“We’re working around the clock to get necessary systems back online and to mitigate impacts to our passengers,” he said.

The Port first reported the outage Saturday morning just after 9 a.m. PT, describing it as an “internet and web systems outage.” A few hours later, Sea-Tac Airport said the outage was due to a “possible cyberattack.”

The outage is impacting baggage services and screens inside the terminal showing flight information at Sea-Tac Airport.

There were long check-in lines at the airport Sunday, and some passengers were being checked in from a printed list.

The Port and airport’s website were still down Sunday at 8 p.m. PT. The airport’s mobile app, FlySEA, was also down.

Alaska Airlines said earlier Sunday that its systems have not been directly impacted by the cyberattack, though it suggested passengers “avoid checking a bag if possible.”

The Transportation Security Administration said there was no impact to operations at security checkpoints, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its systems were not impacted.

There were six canceled flights on Saturday at the airport, according to FlightAware, and five canceled flights as of 8 p.m. PT on Sunday.

The Port said Saturday that its Maritime Facilities phone systems were down. Email and phone services for Port staff were also down.

The outages come a month after a flawed update from cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike caused a global IT disruption, including at Sea-Tac and airports across the country.

https://ift.tt/3KLUtsl August 26, 2024 at 03:02AM GeekWire