[German]On September 14, 2018, British Airport Bristol has been hidden by a ransomware attack. To fix this issue, the flight information system had to be shut down.
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Notification of technical problems
On September 14, 2018, Bristol Airport announced on Twitter that there were problems with the flight information system.
We are currently experiencing technical problems with our flight information screens. Flights are unaffected and details of check-in desks, boarding gates, and arrival/departure times will be made over the public address system. Additional staff are on hand to assist passengers
— Bristol Airport (@BristolAirport) 14. September 2018
The display panels for arrivals and departures had failed due to technical problems. Since Sunday (16.9.2018) the displays seem to be working again, as the airport reports in this tweet.
Live flight information has now been restored to digital screens in key locations in the terminal. pic.twitter.com/pm4R0sZ4eX
— Bristol Airport (@BristolAirport) 16. September 2018
This is what it looked like on the airport
In the last three days, users posted the replacement solutions provided by the airport operator on Twitter.
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Bristol airport protesting against over-technification. #StoneageSunday pic.twitter.com/2frmcpR7Ph
— Simon Hammann (@Simon_Hammann) 16. September 2018
Here you can see the failed display and the replacement solution in a tweet.
It's all fun and games at #BristolAirport! lets hope they don't run out of paper pic.twitter.com/nYefn9Aqr4
— Julieanne McMahon (@julieanne_mc) 14. September 2018
Some users made lokes about the whole thing. Here they are worried that the paper will be exhausted:
New state-of-the-art arrivals announcement system at Bristol Airport pic.twitter.com/IIRwhMSSOk
— Jean van den Elsen (@JeanvdElsen) 15. September 2018
One suspects that the display systems have received an 'IT upgrade' and the whole thing will then be solved like this.
@BristolAirport on top form this morning after new IT system upgrade! ✈️ pic.twitter.com/XlmFFzxIql
— Scott Bradford (@ScottBradford50) 15. September 2018
Ransomware infection on airport systems
A few minutes ago it became known that the flight information system at Bristol airport was probably infected by Ransomware.
Cyber attack causes 'chaos' for passengers at Bristol Airporthttps://t.co/4uIbUiZFNc pic.twitter.com/aS8e9Bfctw
— WalesOnline (@WalesOnline) 16. September 2018
Local newspapers came out with the story, as the above tweet shows. Wales Online reports that the problems started on Friday (14. 9.), but lasted well into Sunday. On Twitter I read posts that even passengers were stuck in planes for more than 2 1/2 hours because nothing worked.
James Gore, the airport's spokesman, told local newsletters that the information screens set up at the airport had been taken offline to prevent an attack similar to the so-called "ransomware". He told Bristol Live, "We believe there has been an online attempt to capture some of our management systems, and that required that we take a number of applications offline as a precaution, including those that provide our data for flight information displays. This was done to mitigate the problem and avoid further impact on more critical systems".
According to Gore, the systems are now working at "key locations" again, including departures and arrivals. The airport's IT department is working on bringing the entire website back online. Specifically, there has probably been a ransomware attack on the airport's systems. The spokesman said that no "ransom money" had been paid to put the systems back into operation. ZDNet also has an article with some information on the subject.
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