Hundreds of SpiceJet passengers in India were stuck on their planes, some for several hours, as the low-cost carrier’s operations were disrupted by an “attempted” cyberattack, she said.
An airline representative told AFP on Thursday that flight operations had returned to normal, without giving further details on the incident.
“Some SpiceJet systems experienced an attempted ransomware attack last night that impacted our flight operations,” the airline said simply on Twitter on Wednesday.
The company added that it had “broadly brought the situation under control and rectified it” but that continued delays had forced it to cancel some flights to airports under night curfew.
Many angry passengers, some of whom waited up to five hours on their plane, complained about the airline’s lack of communication.
According to Mudit Shejwar, one of those passengers, the only explanation for his flight was “a server down and a fuel paperwork issue.”
“What about the damage we will suffer as a result of this delay?” he asked on Twitter, adding that his flight was delayed by five hours.
Ransomware cyber attacks allow hackers to take control of a system by encrypting all of its data until the victim pays a ransom.
With the exponential growth of commerce, exchanges and online activities, they are becoming more and more common.
Last year, the United States offered a $10 million reward to help track down the leaders of the “DarkSide” gang that blamed Washington for a hack that brought down one of the world’s largest oil pipelines brought.