In West Sussex, police have arrested a man suspected of involvement in a cyberattack that caused widespread disruptions at London's Heathrow Airport and other European transport hubs. This was reported by Metro, citing the National Crime Agency (NCA), writes UNN.
Details
The NCA reported that the arrested man is in his 40s. He is suspected of violating the Computer Misuse Act. He has since been released on conditional bail.
NCA Deputy Director Paul Foster, who heads the National Cyber Crime Unit, reported positive developments in the investigation.
While this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is at an early stage and ongoing.
He emphasized that "cybercrime is a persistent global threat that continues to cause significant damage to the UK. Together with our partners here and abroad, the NCA is committed to reducing this threat to protect the British public."
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Experts emphasize that transparency in such cases is critically important. Professor of Computer Science at the University of Surrey, Alan Woodward, commented to Metro: "Criminals do this for money. They are in their networks and say we can shut down all sorts of parts of your network if you don't pay us. This was a tester."
Although European airports experienced the biggest disruptions, the first outages were recorded in the US, where flights across the country were temporarily halted. However, it is currently unknown whether the arrested person is directly related to these incidents.
Recall
Some of Europe's largest airports faced difficulties in resuming normal operations on Sunday after hackers disrupted automated check-in systems.
On September 20, it was reported that a cyberattack paralyzed airports across Europe.
On September 22, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) stated that a ransomware cyberattack caused serious disruptions to several major European airports.