Ransomware attack cripples Bristol Airport's arrival and departure boards
The boards were down for two days while the company's engineers fixed the problem


Bristol Airport's departure and arrival boards haven't been working for two days after a ransomware attack affected its operation.
A spokesperson said it was necessary to take the boards down to prevent the rest of the airport's computers being affected too.
"We believe there was an online attempt to target part of our administrative systems and that required us to take a number of applications offline as a precautionary measure, including the one that provides our data for flight information screens," spokesman James Gore told the BBC.
"That was done to contain the problem and avoid any further impact on more critical systems."
However, he also added that the attack was a speculative attempt to break into the computing system rather than a targeted attack specifically on Bristol Airport and flights have not been affected as a result.
He said that safety and security of its passengers or staff were never affected and although it has taken longer to get the departure and arrival boards up and running, it was because the airport wanted to make sure other aspects of computing infrastructure wouldn't be affected.
"Given the number of safety and security critical systems operating at an airport, we wanted to make sure that the issue with the flight information application that experienced the problem was absolutely resolved before it was put back online," Gore finished.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
Engineers are now working to get the boards back up, but the airport was quick to stress that hasn't involved paying the criminals the ransom they have demanded, but quarantining and fixing the affected files.
This is not the first time tech problems have caused havoc with Gatwick's information boards, as a faulty cable knocked them offline back in August.

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.
Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.
As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.
-
Apple just released an emergency patch for a zero-day exploited in the wild
News Apple is warning millions of users of iPhones, iPads and Macs to update their software to protect against an out-of-bounds write vulnerability
-
Google's new Jules coding agent is free to use for anyone – and it just got a big update to prevent bad code output
News Jules came out of beta and launched publicly earlier this month, but it's already had a big update aimed at improving code quality and safety.
-
Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarter
News Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
-
BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new group
News The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
-
Google cyber researchers were tracking the ShinyHunters group’s Salesforce attacks – then realized they’d also fallen victim
News In an update to an investigation on the ShinyHunters group, Google revealed it had also been affected
-
Nearly one-third of ransomware victims are hit multiple times, even after paying hackers
News Many ransomware victims are being hit more than once, largely thanks to fragmented security tactics
-
75% of UK business leaders are willing to risk criminal penalties to pay ransoms
News A ransom payment ban is a great idea - until you're the one being targeted...
-
The Scattered Spider ransomware group is infiltrating Slack and Microsoft Teams to target vulnerable employees
News The group is using new ransomware variants and new social engineering techniques - including sneaking into corporate teleconferences
-
Hackers breached a 158 year old company by guessing an employee password – experts say it’s a ‘pertinent reminder’ of the devastating impact of cyber crime
News A Panorama documentary exposed hackers' techniques and talked to the teams trying to tackle them
-
The ransomware boom shows no signs of letting up – and these groups are causing the most chaos
News Thousands of ransomware cases have already been posted on the dark web this year