Israel-Hamas War: Global aviation industry bears brunt of hacktivism

An ideologically motivated hacking group has escalated cyber attacks on the aviation industry of India and several other countries over its stance on the ongoing Gaza war between Hamas and Israel, a new report suggests.

US-based security research company Security It said countries that either support Israel or do not put enough pressure on Tel Aviv to stop its devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip are targeted.

“India Today” saw that a self-proclaimed pro-Palestinian organization “Anonymous Collective” claimed that they shut down the official website of Delhi Airport for three hours on January 21. The hackers said their cyber operation, dubbed #OpIsrael, targets “terrorist states that support Israel.”

According to independent website availability checkers, www.newdelhiairport.in went down at 12:31 IST on January 21. However, the duration of the outage cannot be independently verified. Delhi Airport authorities, however, ruled out any cyber attack on the day and claimed that the website was “slow” as a “security patch” was running.

Resecurity said in a blog titled “Aerospace sector faces soaring cyber threats” that airports in the UK, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan were among the targets.

In November 2023, the notorious ransomware group LockBit released gigabytes of internal data stolen from Boeing, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers and service providers. In February, the United States and Britain said they had disrupted a variant of LockBit’s ransomware and prosecuted two Russians. The group is also targeting nonprofit aerospace companies this year.

Global aviation industry faces increasing cyberattacks

In April 2023, five airports in India, including those in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Goa, were reportedly hit by a coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack by “Anonymous Sultan” that led to website outages Up to 9 hours. The report quoted experts as saying that after the outbreak of the Gaza war, “hacking activities targeting the aviation field” escalated sharply. The war in Ukraine was also a contributing factor.

Resecurity observed “clear Gaza-linked hacking activity in a DDoS attack targeting Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport in the United Kingdom.”

Previously, Boeing Chief Security Officer Richard Puckett said at an aviation industry event in Atlanta, USA, that the “incidence of ransomware within the aviation supply chain” surged by 600% in 2022.

After the attack on Liverpool Airport, Anonymous said it was in retaliation for Britain’s support for the Israeli Defense Forces in Palestine.

In December 2023, a group calling itself “R00TK1T ISC Cyber ​​Team” claimed to have hacked into Qatar Airways’ systems and said they stole more than 400GB of data.

Similarly, operations of Bahrain’s national airline Gulf Air were allegedly disrupted by a cyber attack by “ALTOUFAN TEAM” in November 2023.

Bangladeshi hackers become new force

Rogue cyber geeks in Bangladesh have also made their presence felt across the world. According to the report, such an organization called “Bangladesh Mystery Team” launched DDoS attacks on several important airports in Saudi Arabia last November, including King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA). In their tweets, the hackers also claimed to have previously targeted multiple international airports, including those in the United States and Italy, for what they claimed was “support for Israel.”

The attacks are amplified due to the increasing integration of Internet of Things (IIoT) technology, rising geopolitical tensions and the U.S. government’s designation of the aerospace industry as critical infrastructure, the report said.