Websites for both O'Hare and Midway International Airports were knocked offline Monday, along with the Chicago Department of Aviation's website as part of a nationwide cyber-attack, officials say.
The CDA confirmed that FlyChicago.com, as well as related websites for O’Hare and Midway, went offline during the cyberattack Monday, but also confirmed that airport operations were not affected.
For most of the morning, if users tried to access the websites they were greeted by error messages and white screens, according to officials.
More than a dozen airports across the country were impacted.
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According to multiple reports, the attacks were coordinated "denial of service," or DDoS, attacks, which work by overwhelming servers through a flood of internet traffic in an effort to force websites offline.
While it is still under investigation, the attack is thought to be the work of Killnet, a hacktivist group sympathetic to Russia, who has stepped up its efforts after Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine earlier this year.
Cyber security expert John Griffin, Jr. said the purpose may not have been to effect airport operations, but to send a message.
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"They let you know their capabilities and say ‘hey, we can go further. We can do much more damage,” he said.
Griffin says he is also seeing an increase in the number of international hacking efforts going after personal information.
“They can take your information; they can sell it on the dark web. They can really hurt you in terms of your credit,” he said.
He advises internet users to keep their systems up to date…and to use two factor authentication where they can.
By noon, FlyChicago.com was back up and running and fully functional, but the CDA says it is looking into the circumstances of the attack, and to determine which systemic vulnerabilities it should address in its aftermath.
