New York’s Albany Airport Pays Ransom

Albany County Airport Authority has disclosed a cyberattack on their systems. The New York Airport systems fell prey to Sodinokibi attack. According to local TV station reports the security incident happened at the Albany International Airport over the busy Christmas holiday period. 

The malware infection affected numerous administrative servers of the airport. Fortunately, it did not affect the routine operations and targeted the servers of the IT firm the airport contracted for computer management.

From this infected server, the ransomware then spread on the entire network affecting all systems. In addition, the ransomware also infected their backup, leaving them with no option for recovering lost data. They assured that the security incident did not affect any airline computers. Nor did it impact travellers personal information in any way.

Ransom Demanded and Paid
Upon detecting the ransomware infection, the Airport authority notified New York State Cyber Command and the FBI about the incident. Furthermore, they have also found help from the local computer services comnany ABS Solutions.

Despite their measures, the Airport authorities could not access their data. Eventually, they had to pay the ransom to the attackers. 

An airport spokesperson, has been reported to say that they got back access their data four hours after paying the ransom. ​Though, he did not specify the exact amount ransom demanded by the attackers it is thought to be below six figures. 

The airport also worked with its cyber insurance provider to pay the ransom and unlock the impacted servers, which required sending bitcoin to a Russian actor known as Sodinokibi using the same attack method hat has disabled the finacial services operataions of Travelex. 

The servers that were encrypted during the ransomware attack contained archival airport data, including legal, administrative and HR files. A forensic analysis determined that no consumer information, such as credit card data, was impacted.

The airport has since severed its relationship with its original IT contrcator and is working with a new service supplier  to redesign its computer servers internally.

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