A hack hitting major airports across Europe followed by drone incursions in Copenhagen and Oslo are testing the
weak spots of the region’s aviation infrastructure and raising fears about coordinated attacks leading to increased disruption.
In Denmark, drones halted flights at Copenhagen’s main airport on Monday for several hours, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen linking t
he incident to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.
That came alongside a separate drone incident in Norwegian capital Oslo and days after hackers hit check-in systems wi
th a ransomware attack at airports including London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest, as well as in Berlin and Brussels.
Read more: Denmark Links Drones at Copenhagen Airport to Hybrid Attacks Across Europe
Investigators are yet to determine who was behind the disruption, but experts see them as part of a spate of re
cent “hybrid threat” incidents in the region to test how countries manage their critical infrastructure.
“First is to test how the method works. In this case, it leads to closing down airports,” said Jukka Savolainen, ne
twork director at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. “The second testing point is our reaction.”
Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said in a statement sent to Reuters that allegations of Russia
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n involvement were ungrounded. Reuters could not independently confirm who was behind the drone disruption or the weekend hack.
Attacks Show Vulnerability of Sectors Such as Aviation
The disruptions, though, lay bare how vulnerable the civil aviation se
ctor’s operations can be, with outages down the supply chain rippling across airports and airline operations, leading to hundreds of delayed and canceled flights.
As so-called “hybrid war” threats grow, including drones, GPS interference and hacks, experts say aviation regulators ne
ed to take more proactive steps to mitigate against risks to cybersecurity, navigation systems and overall safety.
“This attack shows just how vulnerable highly connected industries like aviation can be,” said Bart Salaets at U.S.
cybersecurity firm F5, speaking about the weekend hack of Collins Aerospace check-in software.
Analysts and experts Reuters spoke to pointed to an increase in activity by possible Russian actors across Europe in rec
ent weeks as an impetus for regulators to offer clearer guidelines and encourage more action to defend critical infrastructure.
“(Drone activity) is getting worse and in my opinion it won’t stop,” said Eric Schouten, director of security intelligence and aviation advisory firm Dyami.
“Airlines are looking at governments and authorities in this, airports the same.”
Moscow has consistently denied responsibility for any hybrid attack in Europe.
Europe’s air traffic control body Eurocontrol said it was providing support to local air traffic control and national authorities to manage the impact of such incidents.
“Operators need to be able to dynamically risk assess their operations, have plans in place for diverts and risk mitigation measures,” aviation security consultancy Osprey’s intelligence officer Matthew Borie told Reuters.