Bristol Airport hit by ransomware attack that took down all flight information display screens

• Following the attack, airport officials used paper posters and whiteboards to announce the arrivals and departures of flights.
• Most of the affected screens are currently working normally.

The Bristol Airport suffered a ransomware attack which caused the airport’s flight information screens to go blank for around two days. The UK airport is believed to have been attacked on Friday (September 14).

Following the attack, passengers were urged to arrive early and allocated extra time for the check-in process. The airport’s officials used paper posters and whiteboards to announce the arrivals and departures of flights.

"We believe there was an online attempt to target part of our administrative systems and that required us to take a number of applications offline as a precautionary measure, including the one that provides our data for flight information screens. That was done to contain the problem and avoid any further impact on more critical systems,” James Gore, an airport official said, BBC News reported.

As a precaution, the display screens were taken down on Friday, in an effort to contain the attack. Gore said that no flights were delayed due to the attack, ZDNet reported.

Most of the affected screens are currently working normally. The airport is working to bring the whole site back online, airport officials tweeted. Gore added that no ransom has been paid to restore the systems.

"We are grateful to passengers for their patience while we have been working to resolve issues with flight information this weekend. Digital screens are now live in arrivals and departures. Work will continue to restore complete site-wide coverage as soon as possible," airport officials said, ZDNet reported.

"At no point were any safety or security systems impacted or put at risk," Gore added, BBC News reported.

"Given the number of safety and security critical systems operating at an airport, we wanted to make sure that the issue with the flight information application that experienced the problem was absolutely resolved before it was put back online," Gore explained, BBC News reported.