General

ENGLAND – British holidaymakers are facing travel chaos at Heathrow after a cyber attack disrupted check-in and boarding systems for several major European airports.

Passengers at the UK’s largest airport are experiencing three hour long queues this morning after hackers targeted Collins Aerospace, which provides services for multiple airlines globally, on Friday night.

The company is ‘experiencing a technical issue which may cause delays for departing passengers’. Although the attack ‘is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations’, it added.

The timing of the attack coincides with recent Russian incursions into NATO territories, the latest taking place just hours ago when three fighter jets entered neighbouring Estonia in a ‘reckless’ and ‘brazen’ attempt to intimidate the Baltic state.

Heathrow has warned of delays and advised customers to check their flight status with their airline before travelling, while a number of departures were also cancelled.

Brussels and Berlin have also been affected by the cyber attack, with the former confirming that 10 flights had been cancelled and 17 flights were experiencing delays of more than one hour.

It is currently unclear who is behind the incident, although Russian hackers have launched a number of devastating attacks against organisations both in the UK and the US in recent months.

Marks & Spencer, Harrods and the Co-op were all targeted by the Russia-linked group cybercrime group DragonForce earlier this year, while Moscow is also believed to be behind an ‘unprecedented’ hack on the US Department of Justice.

British holidaymakers are facing travel chaos at Heathrow after a cyber attack disrupted check-in and boarding systems for several major European airports. (Pic: Sky News)