Russian Hack Hits US Airports

The websites of several major US airports temporarily went offline yesterday, taken down by what is believed to be a cyberattack by a Russia-affiliated hacker group. Locations affected included Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International, Chicago's O'Hare International, and Los Angeles International—each among the top 10 busiest airports in the world. Officials reported minimal disruption from the denial-of-service attack (see 101), which prevents access to a website by overwhelming servers with false traffic.

The cyberattacks came in parallel to intense Russian shelling of a number of Ukrainian cities, retaliation for a weekend attack that significantly damaged the lone bridge connecting Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. At least 11 people were killed and more than 60 injured in strikes that fell from the western city of Lviv to Kharkiv in the northeast.

Meanwhile, reports suggest the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south has pushed to within about 16 miles of the outskirts of the city of Kherson, which has been occupied by Russian forces since March. See updates here.