CrowdStrike Outage Updates , Incident & Breach Response , Security Operations
Seattle-Tacoma Airport IT Outages Persist Into Day 3
Disruptions Affecting Website, Terminal Information Screens, Baggage Sorting System
Travelers in the Pacific Northwest's busiest airport should travel light and gird for extra levels of frustration in the aftermath of a suspected Saturday cyberattack.
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport posted onto social media Saturday that systems "experienced certain system outages indicating a possible cyberattack." In a Sunday update it warned that systems outages continue and "there is not an estimated time for return."
Systems outages extend to websites owned by the Port of Seattle, which oversees the seaport and the airport. "We’re working around the clock to get necessary systems back online and to mitigate impacts to our passengers," airport aviation managing director Lance Lyttle said Sunday, reported the Associated Press. Nearly 51 million passengers transited through the airport in 2023.
Impacted operations include terminal screens displaying flight gate information. Alaska Airlines, which has its hub of operations in Seattle, told travelers the outage also affected the airport baggage sorting system. "If you are flying out today, pack light, keep essential belongings with you, and avoid checking a bag if possible," the airliner said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Delta, which also operates a hub in Seattle, told the Seattle Times the outage hasn't affected flights. The Times similarly reported Sunday the outages haven't led to mass flight delays or cancellations.
An FBI spokesperson told the newspaper that it is aware of the incident and is "working with our partners to determine what happened." No major cybercrime or ransomware group appears to have claimed responsibility for the incident.
A disruption to airport operations could feel like déjà vu to frequent flyers who recall global IT disruptions in July caused by a faulty update to the CrowdStrike endpoint detection platform that sent Windows computers into a self-repeating reboot spiral. Among the most publicly visible systems were airport gate display systems (see: CrowdStrike Outage: 97% of Disrupted Endpoints Restored).
