Flights were briefly delayed by hacks of the public address systems at two North American airports where travelers heard pro-Palestinian messages praising Hamas and denouncing President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The unauthorized recordings played at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania and Kelowna International Airport in British Columbia, Canada, several news outlets reported.
In Pennsylvania, local news outlets carried a portion of the announcement, while editing out expletives that reportedly were featured from the hacked PA system.
“During this incident, one flight was boarding,” Harrisburg airport spokesman Scott Miller told WGAL8. “Out of an abundance of caution, the aircraft was searched. No security issues were found, and the flight departed safely.”
“The message was political in nature and did not contain any threats against the airport, our tenants, airlines, or passengers,” he continued. “The PA system was shut off, and the incident is under investigation by police.”
Around the same time, more than 2,000 miles away in British Columbia, Kelowna International Airport reported a similar incident, briefly delaying some flights, CBC news reported.
There, the pro-Palestine message was also displayed on the flight display screens, Phillip Elchitz, the airport’s director of operations and innovation, told CBC News.
Such cyber breaches are threatening to become the bane of the airline industry. In June, a cyber criminal group hacked the computer networks of several airlines in the U.S. and Canada.
Last month, as Breitbart News reported, a cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems disrupted air traffic and caused delays at several of Europe’s major airports.
Airports officials still don’t quite know how hackers penetrate some of their systems.
“We’re working with our service providers to better understand how these files ended up on these screens and on the PA system,” Kelowna director Elchitz said. “And obviously we want to make sure that whatever security loopholes that existed within those systems are shut down completely so this doesn’t happen again.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles, including Dark Rage, a novel about an attack by a disgruntled air traffic controller on Detroit Metropolitan Airport. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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