Digital Airport Platform mitigates risks of cyber attacks at airports

In this blog, learn more about DDoS attacks on airports and how our Digital Airport Platform can help.

Published

October

2024

Written by

DDoS attacks are more relevant than ever. In the first quarter of 2024, the number of attacks increased by as much as 50% from last year, and by 18% from the last quarter (source: Cloudflare). The United States led the list as the most affected country, followed by China, Canada, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cyprus and Germany. Recently, this trend received additional attention when a major international airport experienced problems due to a suspected DDoS attack. This incident underscores the urgent need for organizations to implement robust defenses and continuously innovate in cybersecurity.

What are DDoS attacks?

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is a cyber attack in which an overwhelming amount of traffic from different sources is simultaneously directed at a specific target, such as a website or server. The goal is to overload the server hosting this service with abnormally high traffic volumes, rendering it unable to process normal requests. The result is a temporary or long-term outage of the service with potentially serious consequences for the target's availability and reputation. The recent increase can be explained by a combination of low entry barriers, political motivations, more sophisticated tactics and vulnerability of critical infrastructures, among other factors.

Why airports are often DDoS targets

Airports are hubs for international trade and traffic. That makes them particularly vulnerable. Their digital platforms are an important source of information for many visitors on such things as flight times and options for checking in or parking. At the same time, airports are increasingly developing as destinations in their own right, offering a wide range of complementary services that make visitors' stay more pleasant and interesting. From duty-free shopping to restaurants and many forms of entertainment. For this too, visitors are orienting themselves to the airport's digital platforms. Temporary inaccessibility results in a lot of direct and indirect damage and inconvenience for both visitors, the airport and its partners. Airports that are vulnerable to DDoS attacks due to their outdated systems or faulty infrastructure setup are usually also at greater risk of falling victim to more sophisticated cyber attacks by professional hackers. These can therefore also penetrate the underlying IT infrastructure, for example. The potential consequences for the airport's many operational processes are multifaceted and significant, and logically must be avoided at all costs.

Impact of DDoS attacks on airports

DDoS attacks can cause significant operational and financial damage to the airport. When vital systems such as flight information, security checks and baggage handling become disrupted, it results in long waiting times and chaos in the terminal. All this can have a negative effect on the airport's image, leading to loss of trust among travelers and partners. In addition, central infrastructure can be targeted, affecting overall operational efficiency. Financially, attacks can result in losses. Consider missed revenue from online bookings such as parking reservations. Finally, system recovery after an attack also involves significant costs.

Digital Airport Platform

Airports have an interest in a digital infrastructure that defends them against such attacks and mitigates their impact. Leading U.S. airports such as CLT, CVG and DFW are therefore using Move's AWS-based Digital Airport Platform (DAP). The platform enables numerous flight-related and operational data streams to be brought together and shared with travelers, airport staff and other audiences through all desired channels. To ensure the availability of this information, the platform is equipped with high-level protection against DDoS attacks. In fact, DAP works with a:

Modular design that ensures data flows remain strictly separated, ensuring access to the digital front end does not pose a risk to other sensitive systems.
Optimized Display Performance (thanks to static pages). This has the added benefit of making the website resistant to DDoS attacks because very little code is used to display the site. Only dynamic content is loaded on demand.
DDoS protection in the form of AWS Cloud Security Services such as AWS Shield, which provides standard protection against DDoS attacks. Optionally, AWS Shield Advanced can be deployed for even more robust defense.‍
Globally distributed Content Delivery Network (CDN) that distributes hosting globally, providing additional protection and ensuring faster connections.