A “potential cyberattack” has been reported by The Port of Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac). The outage was first reported via social media platform X, where the airport posted to have “experienced certain system outages indicating a possible cyberattack.
The managing director of aviation for Sea-Tac, Lance Lyttle, said during a press conference on Sunday that an “unauthorized activity” was detected on port systems on Saturday morning which they believe was a cyberattack.
The Transportation Security Administration stated that the attack is majorly impacting baggage services and terminal screens that show flight information and there is no impact to operations at security checkpoints. The airport is advising passengers to use airline apps for boarding passes, prefer cabin baggage, and to plan extra time to reach their gates.
As of Sunday evening the airport’s website, mobile app and other public facing infrastructure was still down. While the Port teams are doing their best to restore the services, resolution time for the issue remains uncertain.
The attack highlights the increasing cyberattack threats to critical infrastructure. Other cyberattack include ransomware attacks on Seattle Public Library and Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center during the past year. Also, this attack comes a week after oilfield giant Halliburton faced operational disruptions due to a cyberattack.
