According to the European aviation body Eurocontrol, pro-Russian hackers attacked their website and temporarily paralyzed it. Air traffic is not affected.
The European Aviation Safety Organization has been hacked. “The organization’s website has been the target of pro-Russian hackers since April 19,” said YourControl. Air traffic is not affected by this.
A senior Eurocontrol official told the Wall Street Journal that key flight safety systems were safeguarded. They are not connected to external networks that hackers can use to hack.
However, the intercom was affected by the attacks. 2,000 employees had to communicate using other software. The site was intermittently unavailable or taking a long time to load on Thursday. In the organization’s Network Operations (NOP) portal, there was a notice for airlines to submit flight plans through other channels.
Responsible for upper airspace
Eurocontrol is a European body of 41 member states that monitors and improves European airspace for air traffic. It is also responsible for the upper airspace of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg as well as for its military use in some member states.
According to research by The Wall Street Journal, the Russian hacker group Killnet announced the attack on Eurocontrol on Telegram. The group invited other hackers to run a 100-hour marathon. This could mean a DDoS attack where the server gets bombarded with a flood of requests. In another post on Telegram, Killnet is said to have justified its action by saying that Eurocontrol is linked to NATO and supports Ukraine.