A coordinated cyberattack targeted four North American airports on Tuesday, displaying politically charged messages on public screens and through loudspeakers. The hack, which appeared to have pro-Hamas sentiments, impacted Kelowna, Victoria, and Windsor airports in Canada, as well as Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania, USA. Travelers were met with slogans like “Israel lost the war, Hamas won the war honorably” and profanity directed at U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In Harrisburg, loudspeakers broadcast messages including “F*ck Trump — Free Palestine” and attributed the intrusion to “Turkish hacker Cyber Islam.” Airport authorities have stated that the core flight control systems were not compromised, but rather vulnerabilities in third-party software used for public communication networks were exploited. Investigations into the incident are underway by federal agencies in both Canada and the United States, including the RCMP and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. This latest breach highlights growing concerns about cyber threats to the aviation sector globally.
