UK Airport Cyberattacks: Millions Urged To Stay ‘Vigilant’

This week, cyberattacks have taken place in three UK airports: Manchester, Stansted, and East Midlands.

During these breaches, hackers accessed the data of 8.7 million customers, The Guardian reports.

Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which owns all three airports, has assured customers that “at no point has passenger safety or aviation security been compromised”.

The hackers seem to have accessed information regarding “car park, lounge and fast-track bookings and in-airport wifi sign-up”, and not things like customer credit card details.

MAG also said that they acted quickly to resolve and contain the issue, informing passengers about the breach as soon as possible – the company stated it has been “working with specialist advisors and taking appropriate steps to protect our customers and systems”.

Affected customers, they say, have been contacted directly, with involved airports reminding all passengers to follow “standard cyber security good practice,” including remaining “vigilant for suspicious emails, text messages or phone calls”.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has said that people worried about the cyberattacks can access support on its website.

Though information like bank details wasn’t hacked in these cases, IT expert John Pepper, CEO and founder of Managed247, said customers could still face phishing attempts as a result.

“While the fact that payment and banking information was not obtained by hackers will be reassuring to customers, it is important not to underestimate the value of the information that has been accessed. The real risk may be what criminals can do with that information next,” he explained.

“An email address on its own might not seem particularly sensitive, but combine it with a phone number, postcode, vehicle registration and knowledge that someone has used an airport service, and you have a much more convincing basis for impersonation.”

Hackers can use these seemingly small pieces of data to form a more convincing scam email, he added, and may even combine them with information from other data breaches to build a more detailed picture of possible victims.

This, he said, is why customers need to remain “particularly alert over the coming weeks and months.

“A scammer may not necessarily mention the breach itself. They could pose as an airport, parking provider, travel company, Wi-Fi provider or another organisation connected to a customer’s journey, using genuine details to establish credibility before trying to obtain a password, payment information or access to an account.”

Pepper said it’s always a good idea to be cautious of “any unexpected message that uses personal information to make [you] feel that it must be legitimate.

“Don’t assume that because someone knows your registration number, postcode, email address or details about a journey that they are who they claim to be.”

A request that feels really urgent – like telling you to pay for something in the next hour or risk fines – is a serious red flag, he added.

“Don’t click through from an unsolicited message – instead, go directly to the organisation’s official website or use a trusted phone number to verify the request,” the expert ended.

“It’s also important to remember that cyber attacks don’t necessarily end when an organisation contains the initial intrusion. For the organisation, continuous monitoring and prompt investigation are critical to understanding what an attacker may have accessed and stopping any further compromise.

“For consumers, the equivalent is staying alert to what comes next, because the stolen information itself can become the raw material for much more targeted attacks, phishing, social engineering, and fraud, which can result in financial loss or identity theft”.