The Union Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, informed Parliament about confirmed cyber attacks that targeted seven major airports across India, causing technical anomalies at key aviation hubs. The government acknowledged that airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru were among those affected by the cybersecurity incidents. A report from Matrubhumi indicated that flights approaching these airports, specifically those using GPS-based landing procedures, reported instances of GPS spoofing, particularly at Runway 10 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. This confirmation follows earlier reports of widespread technical issues across several big airports nationwide, highlighting a significant security concern for the country’s aviation sector.
The primary technique of the cyber attack involved the reported spoofing of Global Positioning System signals, particularly impacting flights attempting to land at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. GPS spoofing is a sophisticated cyber measure where false GPS signals are broadcast to receivers, which can mislead an aircraft’s navigation systems regarding its actual position and altitude. Such an incident confirms a growing vulnerability within India’s digital ecosystem, as critical transport infrastructure, including some of the busiest domestic and international gateways, has been directly targeted. This situation necessitates an immediate and comprehensive review of the current cyber security protocols protecting the nation’s air navigation services.
Despite the highly sensitive nature of the cyber attacks, the government was quick to stress that no flight operations were disrupted or cancelled because of the GPS spoofing. Officials confirmed that immediate contingency measures and robust security protocols were enacted, ensuring that air traffic control systems maintained stability throughout the incidents. This continuous vigilance allowed all scheduled flights to operate without any interruption. The affected airports are now maintaining a heightened state of cyber vigilance to preempt any future attacks and ensure the safety and security of all commercial air travel.
This incident follows a separate system failure at the Delhi airport in November, which had previously caused widespread delays and initially raised suspicions of a cyber attack. However, that earlier disruption was later definitively attributed to a technical glitch within the Automatic Message Switching System. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and associated security agencies continue to closely monitor the ongoing situation to ensure the uninterrupted flow of air traffic. Their immediate focus remains on implementing enhanced cyber countermeasures across the aviation network to prevent a recurrence of such sophisticated attacks on India’s critical infrastructure.
The confirmation of this cyber attack also closely follows a separate global aviation incident where flight operations were impacted due to a necessary software-related fix for Airbus A320 airplanes. The A320 narrowbody jet is widely regarded as the backbone of domestic and local-level aviation, serving a vast number of airlines worldwide. The prior software issue had impacted approximately 388 flights in India alone on a Saturday, though all Indian airlines completed the required software upgrade by the following day, allowing the planes to resume commercial operations.
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