Pro-Russian KillNet Group Hits US Airline Websites with DDoS Attack

A pro-Russian criminal group named KillNet claims to be behind a significant distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that impacted several major airports in the United States.

DDoS attacks can cripple online services and affect their availability to consumers if the company running those services doesn't take the appropriate precautions. The group that claimed responsibility for this latest attack carried out similar attacks in the past six months in Europe. It's a pro-Russian hacktivist group that aims to create as much chaos as possible.

According to a Bleeping Computer report, the websites of numerous airports have been affected, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX),Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Orlando International Airport (MCO), Denver International Airport (DIA), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and a few others.

The goal is to prevent people from connecting to the websites, which can affect customer interactions with airlines. The flights themselves haven't been affected, but if this continues, it will create serious issues.

KillNet has carried out numerous attacks since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Just in the first few months after the Russian invasion, more than 30 European airports have been targeted in Europe alone.

In fact, this is not the first time that KillNet has targeted a US airport. In late March, Connecticut's Bradley International Airport (KBDL/BDL) was the target of a DDoS attack.

These attacks simply flood incoming connections to a specific online service, slowing it down or making it completely inaccessible.