Suspected Cyber-Attack Causes Travel Chaos at Seattle Airport

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The Port of Seattle has been hit by a suspected cyber-attack, heavily disrupting airport and maritime services in the city ahead of Labor Day.

The ongoing IT outage, which started on August 24, has led to significant delays to the check-in process at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), with no Wi-Fi currently available and display screens not working.

Additionally, certain airport programs and services, such as SEA Visitor Pass and the Airport Lost and Found, are currently unavailable.

Passengers are advised to get their mobile boarding pass and check baggage before they arrive at the airport to speed up the check-in process.

The Port said there are “indications” the outages have been caused by a cyber-attack.

Frontier, Spirit, Sun Country, JetBlue and International Airlines are particularly affected.

The Port of Seattle’s website is currently down, and baggage and flight information cannot be accessed on the SEA apps.

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Port of Seattle Maritime Facilities phone systems are also down as part of the system outage, although Cruise ship services are operating as normal.

The incident is impacting early Labor Day travel, with the US public holiday taking place on September 2.

In a press conference on August 26, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Federal Security Director for Washington, Greg Hawko, emphasized that the security of the travelling public has not been impacted by the incident. The SEA continues to screen and check passengers and baggage effectively.

Critical Systems Isolated, No Estimated Recovery Time

The local government agency first reported “an internet and web systems outage” on August 24 at 09.45 PDT.

Shortly after, at 13.30 PDT, the Port said the outages to certain systems indicated a possible cyber-attack and critical systems had been isolated.

In the August 26 update, the Port of Seattle said it is in the process of working to restore the SEA to full service. However, there is currently no estimated time for return.