Russian hackers crash 14 American airport websites in massive coordinated cyberattack

Websites for 14 U.S. airport websites were targeted with “denial of service” cyber attacks on Monday morning. Russian-speaking hackers have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Denial of service attacks crash websites by simultaneously sending large numbers of artificial users to websites. The overwhelmed service requests shut down the websites by overwhelming the sites’ computer servers.

The attacks affected the public-facing websites for LaGuardia airport in New York City, O’Hare international airport in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, and nine other airport websites. Most of the sites have since returned online.

“The systems targeted do not handle air traffic control, internal airline communications and coordination, or transportation security,” ABC News reported.

“Killnet,” a pro-Russian hacker group, reportedly took credit for the attacks. The group has targeted the U.S. and other Ukrainian allies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. While cyber security experts say that the cyberattack originated in Russia, there’s no proof that the Russian government had any involvement.