Without sector, no company escapes the assaults of cybercriminals. This time, it is the American airlines that seem particularly attacked by a group of notoriously known computer pirates, CNN reports.
According to the FBI, the computer networks of several of these companies have been attacked and committed successfully, they aroused some concern as long as the big vacation outings approach.
This group of pirates called “Spatered Spider”, had distinguished a few years ago with attacks against casinos and hotels in Las Vegas, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, which would have hidden several million dollars. It is also suspected that it has pirate the Aflac Insurance Giant, then Delhaize USA, the parent company of several supermarket signs.
This time, I would be behind the hacks of the computer systems of Hawaiian Airlines and Westjada in Canada. Other victims of the air sector may appear, according to informed research sources.
Data and extortion flight
Westjet’s problems began two weeks ago when the airline said they were intervening after a “cybersecurity incident” that affects access to “certain software services and systems, including its customer application.
The FBI says that it works “actively with its partners in the aviation and industry sector to fight this activity and help the victims.”
“Anyone in the air ecosystem, including suppliers and trust suppliers, may be in danger,” said the FBI on Friday night in a press release that designates a scattered spider as author of The Hacks. “Once inside (from a victim’s network), the scattered spider actors steal from extortion sensitive data are often ransomicular,” added the federal agency.
Westjet and Hawaiian Airlines said their operations had not been assigned by hacks. The lack of impact is “probably the sign of a good separation of internal networks or good continuity and resilience planning of activities,” explains our colleagues Aakin Patel, former IT security manager at Las Vegas main airport.
But it is not only the airlines themselves that are attacked, but other “segments of the aeronautical ecosystem” that suffer an increase in cyber attacks, according to Jeffey Troy, president of Aviation Isac, a cyber dissemination group.
“Our members are very attentive to attacks motivated by financial interests and the collateral consequences of world geopolitical tensions,” he continues.
Call centers as an attack vector
At the moment, these attacks have not officially affected the safety of airlines, but alert cybersecurity managers of the main US airlines.
The latter closely follows the situation, sources said near the file to CNN. Cybersecurity and conductive companies, owned by Google, urge airlines to secure their call centers.
Because it is for this vector that pirates infiltrate the information systems of companies. This is to call assistance services pretending to be employees or customers. This technique has proven very effective for computer pirates who have managed to access large companies.
“Airlines depend strongly on call centers for a large part of their assistance needs,” Aakin Patel said in CNN, making it “a potential objective for groups like this.”
Source: BFM TV
