Japan Airlines (JAL) restored its systems Thursday afternoon following a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that disrupted flight operations and forced the suspension of ticket sales, according to company statements.
The cyberattack began at 7:24 AM JST on Thursday, targeting the airline’s network infrastructure used for both internal and external systems, including luggage check-in operations. The incident resulted in delays for at least 24 domestic flights and affected several international services, according to Kyodo News.
“Through the transport ministry, we have requested JAL to repair its system as soon as possible to respond appropriately to affected customers,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a press conference, as reported by Kyodo News.
JAL successfully identified and addressed the source of the disruption by 8:56 AM by temporarily shutting down a compromised router. The airline confirmed full system restoration by 2:20 PM JST and resumed ticket sales for both domestic and international flights.
The company emphasized that no customer information was leaked and no virus damage occurred during the incident.
Other major Japanese carriers, including All Nippon Airways (ANA), Skymark Airlines, Solaseed Air, and Star Flyer, reported normal operations with no similar cyber threats detected.
The incident follows a similar technical disruption at American Airlines earlier this week. On December 24, American Airlines implemented a nationwide ground stop lasting approximately one hour due to a vendor technology issue affecting its Flight Operations System (FOS).
The Christmas Eve disruption impacted thousands of travelers during one of the busiest travel periods, with only 37% of American Airlines flights departing on time that day. Unlike the JAL incident, American’s disruption was attributed to a technical glitch rather than a cyberattack.
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