Man arrested in UK over alleged link to cyberattack that affected European airports

A man in his 40s has been arrested in southern England in connection with his alleged role in a cyberattack that caused disruption at several European airports, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

The UK's National Crime Agency said the suspect was detained in West Sussex on Tuesday on suspicion of offences involving the misuse of computers. He has been released on conditional bail.

"Although this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is in its early stages and remains ongoing," said Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s national cybercrime unit.

"Cybercrime is a persistent global threat that continues to cause significant disruption to the UK."

Starting late on Friday, airports in Berlin, Brussels and London were hit by disruptions to their electronic check-in and boarding systems, forcing ground staff to resort to handwriting boarding passes or using backup laptops.

The cyberattack affected the software of Collins Aerospace, whose systems help passengers check in, print boarding passes and bag tags and dispatch their luggage.

The US-based company cited a "cyber-related disruption" to its software at "select" airports in Europe.

It was not immediately clear who might be behind the cyberattack, but experts said it could turn out to be hackers, criminal organisations or state actors.

Disruptions continued for several days

The chaos to flight schedules lasted into Monday, with Brussels Airport apparently the hardest hit, asking airlines to cancel nearly 140 flights that were due to depart that day.

Brussels Airlines was still operating only manual check-in and boarding on Monday.

At the beginning of the week, other airports were also advising passengers to check the status of their flights before travelling to the airport and use alternative check-in methods.

A rolling message on the Berlin Brandenburg Airport's website read: "Due to a systems outage at a service provider, there are longer waiting times. Please use online check-in, self-service check-in and the fast bag drop service."

The airport was facing higher-than-usual passenger numbers due to the Berlin Marathon, adding to the delays.

And a message on Heathrow Airport's website on Monday said that work was continuing to resolve and recover from the system outage that impacted check-in.

"We apologise to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate," it read.

The US cloud security company NETSCOUT said that more than 8 million cyberattacks had been reported in the first half of this year, with Europe one of the hardest-hit continents.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving cyberattacks and is used by states and hacktivists to breach security on various fronts, spreading attacks across multiple internet providers (IPs) to avoid detection, the company said.