Three airports in Canada and one in the United States were reportedly hacked on Tuesday, and messages praising Hamas and criticising US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were displayed on screens. The hackers also targeted flight information display screens, causing concern among travellers in both countries.
The Kelowna International Airport and Victoria International Airport in British Columbia, Windsor International Airport in Ontario, and Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania, were among the airports affected.
A spokesperson for the Victoria International Airport told Reuters that the hackers displayed messages in a foreign language. They hacked into third-party software to access the system, and the airport moved to an internal system to take back control, the spokesperson said.
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The breach was to a “cloud-based software provider” used by the airport, and “our systems returned to normal shortly thereafter,” Windsor International Airport said in a statement. Notably, all four locations are smaller, feeder airports.
Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, posted on X, “This is absolutely unacceptable and understandably scared travelers.”
What were the messages?
Visuals of the messages displayed and the announcements being made across the four airports have gone viral on social media. HT.com couldn’t independently verify the veracity of these visuals.
At Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg airport, a woman could be heard on the loudspeaker, saying “Free Palestine” and using expletives while referring to Trump and Netanyahu. The voice was also heard saying, “Turkish hacker Cyber Islam was here.”
The hacks in Canada targeted flight information display screens with pro-Hamas messages. “Israel lost the war, Hamas won the war honorably,” a message at the Kelowna International Airport read.
These hacks were the latest in a growing list of cyberattacks targeting major airports recently. Just last month, a cyberattack caused travel disruptions at several European airports, including London’s Heathrow Airport.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), along with other agencies, is investigating the cyberattack at Canadian airports and is being assisted by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration and airport officials are investigating the breach at Harrisburg International Airport.
