Airline hit by 2 DDoS attacks in 9 months; ticket sales impacted

MUMBAI: An airline has lodged a complaint with the Cyber Police after being targetted in a DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack twice in a span of nine months, impacting its operations. A DDoS attack is like an artificial traffic jam, where hackers flood a company's website, server, or network with excessive fake requests, making it slow or completely unavailable to real users.The unidentified attacker also left behind messages on the airline's social media account, warning them to take things seriously. "While no specific monetary demand was made made from the airline, targeting their portal would result in impacting their sales and would cause them losses," a police official said.Motives for a DDoS attack could vary-- from a rival shutting down a company's online operations to steal their business, or extortion by installing ransomware on the company's servers. Attacks may also be carried out by disgruntled individuals simply to make a statement, or to express disapproval.According to the FIR, the airline's general manager (IT department) noticed a sudden rise in internet traffic on their official portal on Jan 31, 2024. As a result of the DDoS attack, ticket sales on the airline's portal werr impacted for 24 hours. The attacker left behind messages on the airline's social media account which read, "Hello sir, I think soon down your website. Your website down by me. Now your website under attack by me. Aap ko website bachani ho to batana ya fir ham attack on hi rakehenge (If you wish to save your website let us know, otherwise we will continue with our attack)."The second DDoS attack was carried out on Oct 16, 2024. The attacker once again left a series of messages on the airline's social media account which read, "Hello sir, I think soon down your website. Sir, I have received an order to take down your website. Please take it seriously."The airline carried out an internal probe and found out that multiple Internet Protocols (IP) had been used while committing the crime. Details of these IP addresses were submitted to the police. The Central Cyber Police are carrying out a probe supervised by DCP Datta Nalwade and senior inspector Mousami Patil.An FIR was registered on Feb 25.