Turkish Atatürk International Airport Possibly Hit by Malware, Local News Agency Reports

The passport control system of the Turkish Atatürk International Airport fell victim to an alleged cyber-attack that froze the airport`s departure terminal for a few hours last Friday, causing panic among passengers.

The incident caused significant delay in plane departures, and passengers were stuck in the airport hours longer than they initially expected, Security Affairs reported.

The case is currently under investigation and the security team didn`t reveal details of the roumered hacker attack nor stated whether they stole any sensitive customer information saved on the airport databases. If, however, third parties accessed that kind of information, people might end up victims of nasty fraud or sabotage scenarios.

Apparently, the Atatürk incident was not an isolated case. A local news agency reported that “the passport control system at the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul also broke down due to the malfunction of the Istanbul provincial security directorate’s Polnet data system.”

This incident adds to a series of cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure units by unauthorized people in recent years. Targets such as power grids, telecommunication systems and gas control systems are becoming extremely appealing to hackers. This raises serious concerns about the ways conflicts are dealt with nowadays when state sponsored attacks have become a reality and enemies fight over the Internet.