A man in his 40s has been arrested in West Sussex in connection with a cyberattack on Collins Aerospace that disrupted check-in systems across multiple European airports, including Brussels, Berlin and Heathrow.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said in a statement that the man, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act and had since been released on conditional bail.
He has since been released on conditional bail as inquiries continue.
"Although this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is in its early stages and remains ongoing," NCA Deputy Director Paul Foster said.
He emphasised that cybercrime remains a persistent global threat, one that can ripple far beyond digital networks into real-world disruption.
It remained unclear which criminal group was behind last week's hack. An NCA spokesperson declined to provide further details.
Ransomware gangs routinely publicise attacks and leak stolen data on dark web leak sites but websites that monitor those portals had not, as of Wednesday, detected any group claiming the hack.
Ransomware is malicious software used by cybercriminals to encrypt a company’s data and demand payment for its release.
They typically operate in the shadows, and many try to avoid targets which might earn them unwanted attention from law enforcement agencies according to experts.
The cyber incident first surfaced last Friday (19 September), when multiple European airports, including Brussels, Berlin, Dublin and parts of Heathrow, experienced widespread system outages.
Airlines using Collins’s 'MUSE' system were forced to resort to manual check-in and baggage handling procedures.
Scores of flights were cancelled at Heathrow over the weekend, and delays were pervasive across the network.
Brussels stood out as the worst affected, with cancellations and long queues compounding the chaos.
Berlin and Dublin continued to report delays as they worked to restore systems.
Berlin airport said on Wednesday that it may take several more days before it had functional and secure software again, operator BER said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India's Tata Motors, said on Tuesday it was extending the closure of its factories until 1 October following a hack this month that has left its operations paralysed and smaller suppliers struggling.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered Iran's armed forces to respond to any threat immediately and without geographical li...
A tenth-grade student was critically injured after a man attacked her with a chainsaw inside a classroom in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur distri...
Cryptocurrencies are volatile, and their crashes make headlines. But does a slump in digital coins ever spill over into the pounds, dollars and eur...
The Middle East conflict remains tense as diplomatic efforts continue alongside renewed Houthi attacks. Iran says it remains open to mediation, while the Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the kingdom.
Evacuations and the provision of humanitarian aid in the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky have begun, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. In a statement on Telegram, David Arakhamia said a six-day ceasefire was holding, and that more details would follow.
Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday as part of efforts to reach a deal between the U.S. and Iran, according to an official briefed on the talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia remains willing to rebuild relations with European countries but warned that any wider conflict on the continent would leave no winners, as he commented on recent diplomatic contacts with Nordic leaders and growing security concerns in the Baltic region.
Hackers have pulled off a staggering $6.3 billion cryptocurrency heist targeting Binance, shaking confidence in one of the world's biggest digital asset exchanges and sending crypto prices tumbling. U.S. analysts suspect North Korea was behind the attack.
A tenth-grade student was critically injured after a man attacked her with a chainsaw inside a classroom in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district. The girl suffered severe injuries to her head, neck and back, while a classmate who tried to protect her was also hurt.
Deep divisions over Russia's war in Ukraine overshadowed a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on Friday, as European officials criticised Moscow's participation and refused to join a traditional group photograph with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The U.S. has approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine in a deal worth an estimated $2.1 billion, but Kyiv could face years of delays before receiving the weapons it urgently needs to defend against intensifying Russian attacks.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body responsible for monitoring money laundering and terrorist financing risks, has removed four countries from its so-called “grey list” after determining they had made sufficient progress in addressing weaknesses in their financial cr
The death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 5,000, according to government figures released on Friday, as health authorities continue to struggle to contain the country's worst-ever Ebola epidemic.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment