Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has stated that he refused to pay a US $10 million ransom demanded by hackers who, in keeping with some studies, paralysed operations at Kuala Lumpur Worldwide Airport (KLIA).
Anwar described how he had refused to adjust to a ransom demand after a cyber assault on Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), which operates the nation’s airports, within the early hours of Sunday morning.
“After I was knowledgeable about this … I didn’t wait 5 seconds. I stated no,” Anwar stated in a speech on Tuesday. “There isn’t a means this nation will probably be protected if its leaders and system enable us to bow to ultimatums by criminals and traitors, be it from inside or exterior the nation.”
Former Malaysian Member of Parliament Wee Choo Keong claimed that techniques at KLIA have been “down for greater than 10 hours”, and that flight info show boards, check-in counters, and baggage dealing with companies have been disrupted.
He posted a picture on Twitter of what seemed to be airport employees utilizing whiteboards to checklist flight particulars for travellers – suggesting digital techniques have been certainly disrupted.
Nevertheless, different social media customers posted photos of flight info boards at Kuala Lumpur’s airport that seemed to be working usually – suggesting the true nature of the issue might have been exaggerated.
Whereas acknowledging {that a} cyber assault in opposition to pc techniques on the airport had occurred, a joint assertion by Malaysia Airports and the nation’s Nationwide Cyber Safety Company (NACSA) denied that operations at KLIA had been impacted.
Anwar stated throughout a speech that the incident underlines the significance of Malaysia to take a position extra assets into defending itself in opposition to hacking assaults, significantly for important infrastructure equivalent to airports and monetary establishments.
Sadly, no detailed info has been launched in regards to the safety breach. Though the assault bears all of the hallmarks of a ransomware assault, on the time of writing no hacking group has claimed duty.
Whether it is true that KLIA needed to resort to utilizing whiteboards to speak with travellers about their fliught instances, it will not be the primary time that an airport has been impacted on this means. In 2018, for example, Bristol Airport within the UK discovered itself compelled to resort to utilizing whiteboards after a cyber assault.
