Apparent hackers take over PA systems at 4 North American airports

By Martin Goillandeau, CNN

(CNN) — Unauthorized pro-Palestinian political messages praising Hamas and attacking President Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister were broadcast through public address systems in terminals at four airports in North America on Tuesday, disrupting operations and sparking investigations into the apparent hacks.

Videos posted by passengers on social media show the unauthorized recordings played at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania.

Incidents were also reported at Kelowna International Airport and Victoria International Airport in British Columbia along with Windsor International Airport in Ontario, according to Transport Canada, which regulates airports in the country.

The pro-Hamas recordings and messages praise Hamas and, using expletives, are critical of the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The breaches come as the air travel industry has been dealing with an onslaught of cyberattacks that have caused disruptions for customers and ground some of the world’s largest airports to a halt. In June, a notorious cybercriminal group breached the computer networks of multiple airlines in the US and Canada, according to the FBI. And last month, hackers knocked out a passenger check-in system, causing long delays, cancellations and chaos at airports across Europe.

At the Harrisburg airport Tuesday, “an unauthorized user gained access to the airport PA system and played an unauthorized recorded message,” airport spokesperson Scott Miller told CNN affiliate WGAL.

Passenger Glen Brown said at first he was confused at what he was hearing, but then he started worrying about what else could be going on.

“You had to do a double-take and ask yourself if what you were hearing was actually real,” he said. “The real question I have is, if they hack the paging system in an international airport, what else are they tunneling into?

“The message was political in nature and did not contain any threats against the airport, our tenants, airlines, or passengers. The PA system was shut off, and the incident is under investigation by police,” the statement from Miller added.

CNN reached out to the Harrisburg International Airport Police Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration for comment.

During the incident, one flight was in the process of boarding, Miller said.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the aircraft was searched. No security issues were found, and the flight departed safely,” the statement added.

Around the same time, more than 2,000 miles away, Kelowna International Airport reported a similar incident.

“The airport staff was about as in the dark as we were,” one passenger who was waiting for a flight said. “They even had to resort to using megaphones to give people boarding information because the intercom was down.”

In a statement shared with CNN, the airport said a third party accessed both its flight information display screens and public address system.

“Free Palestine,” and pro-Palestinian chants could be heard in a video posted by the passenger on social media who told CNN: “Nobody informed us what was going on, there was no crisis response. Everyone was just really confused.”

Several messages praising Hamas were also broadcast on a screen inside Kelowna airport, according to multiple photos shared on social media.

Kelowna airport officials said the unauthorized messages were removed and flight display systems restored, adding efforts to fully restore the PA system were ongoing.

At Victoria International Airport, “an unauthorized audio message” was also broadcast over the public address system due to “a cloud-based software issue.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank our passengers for their patience and cooperation,” the airport said in a statement.

At Windsor International Airport, the terminal was nearly empty because there were no flights immediately arriving or departing, airport President Mark Galvin said.

“Our team responded quickly, removed the images and shut off the recorded PA announcement,” he said. “We returned to normal shortly thereafter and have been operating without incident.”

Transport Canada tells CNN it is “working closely with federal security partners, including law enforcement, to ensure there were no impacts on the safety and security of airport operations, and to mitigate disruption from similar incidents in the future.”

CNN reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for more information.

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