Japan Airlines (JAL) has suffered a cyberattack that threw the proverbial wrench into their festive operations at a time when the bustling year-end holiday season is at its peak. The attack, which occurred early Thursday morning, on Boxing Day, had led to over 20 domestic flights getting delayed, leaving passengers stranded and frustrated.
The cyberattack targeted JAL’s network, and caused a major malfunction that disrupted the connection between internal and external systems. What this means is that the attackers flooded the network with massive data transmissions, a tactic known as a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. This type of attack overburdens the system, and makes it impossible for it to respond to legitimate traffic.
As the attack was happening, JAL had to temporarily suspend ticket sales for both domestic and international flights. But the JAL authorities handled the crises effectively, assuring anxious passengers at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport that there was no impact on flight safety.
Eventually, Japan Airline’s tech team managed to identify and address the issue within hours. By late morning, the airline had restored its systems and resumed normal operations. The quick response mitigated the disruption, but the incident emphasised on the vulnerabilities in Japan’s cybersecurity infrastructure.
This recent cyberattack is not an isolated incident and experts have repeatedly raised concerns about Japan’s cybersecurity, especially as the country enhances its defense capabilities and partners more closely with international partners. Earlier this year, Japan’s space agency reported a series of cyberattacks, but no sensitive information was compromised in that attack.
