Japan Airlines (JAL) on Thursday reported a cyber attack that resulted in delays to domestic and international flights, before the airline quickly found the cause and remedied it.
The disruption, which affected the Japanese flag carrier’s baggage screening system, caused delays for more than a dozen flights at several Japanese airports, although there were no mass cancellations, according to public broadcaster NHK. Or there was no major obstacle.
JAL is the country’s second largest airline after All Nippon Airways (ANA).
“We have identified the cause of the problem and resolved it. We are checking the system recovery status,” JAL said in a post on social media platform X.
“Sales for domestic and international flights departing today have been suspended. We apologize for any inconvenience,” the post said.
Earlier on Thursday, a JAL spokesperson said AFP The company was hit by a cyber attack.
The network disruption began at 7:24 a.m. Thursday, JAL said in a statement.
Then “at 8:56 am, we temporarily disconnected the router (a device for exchanging data between networks) that was causing the disruption”.
The airline is just the latest Japanese firm to be hit by a cyberattack.
Japan’s space agency JAXA said in 2023 that it was likely penetrated by a cyber attack by unknown entities, but no sensitive information about the rocket or satellite was accessed.
That same year, Nagoya Port, one of Japan’s busiest areas, was crippled by a ransomware attack blamed on Russia-based cybercrime outfit Lockbit.
Japan’s National Center of Internal Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) — the agency responsible for defending against cyber attacks — itself was reportedly infiltrated by hackers for nine months in 2023.
In 2022, the government said a cyber attack was behind a disruption at a Toyota supplier that forced the top-selling automaker to halt work at domestic plants for a day.
More recently, popular Japanese video-sharing website Niconico suspended its services in June because it was hit by a massive cyber attack, its operator said.
The airline is just the latest Japanese firm to be hit by a cyberattack.