A cyber attack hit Japan Airlines delaying ticket sales for flights – Source: securityaffairs.com

A cyberattack hit Japan Airlines (JAL), causing the suspension of ticket sales for flights departing on Thursday.

A cyber attack hit Japan Airlines (JAL) on Thursday, the offensive began at 7:24 a.m. and impacted internal and external systems. The Associated Press reported that the attack disabled a router, causing system malfunctions and suspending ticket sales for Thursday departures.

The cyberattack caused delays of over 30 minutes for 24 domestic flights. JAL’s systems have fully resumed operation following the attack.

The airline determined that threat actors carried out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack to overwhelm the target systems in an attempt to crash them.

Japan Airlines confirmed that its systems were not infected with malware and no customer data was leaked.

The cyber attack only targeted JAL, Japan’s other major air carrier ANA Holdings was not hit, a spokesperson told Associated Press.

Other airlines, including All Nippon Airways, Skymark Airlines, and Star Flyer, have not experienced any cyberattacks.

“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, the top government spokesman, said at a press conference.

Kyodo News reported that Japan Post Co. confirmed mail and parcel deliveries were affected by JAL’s flight disruptions.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, JAL)