The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday that a man was arrested in connection with ransomware attacks that caused delays and confusion at several European airports since the weekend.
The hack, which began on Friday, caused delays at airports in Brussels, Berlin and Dublin, as well as London’s Heathrow, which continued until yesterday, by Collins Aerospace.
The NCA did not name the man who was arrested, but the agency said he was “in his 40s” and was arrested in Southern West Sussex county on Tuesday under the country’s computer misuse law “as part of an investigation into a cyber incident affecting Collins Aerospace.”
The man was released on conditional bail, according to the agency.
“The arrest is a positive step, but the investigation into this case is in its early stages and remains ongoing,” said Paul Foster, deputy director and director of the NCA’s national cybercrime division.
NCA spokesman Richard Crowe said when contacted TechCrunch that the agency had no other additions beyond the press release.
Friday’s cyberattack caused widespread travel delays and confusion, including boarding passes that failed with departure gates and several flight cancellations as many affected airports and airlines had to rely on manual check-in.
RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies), the defense contractor giant that owns Collins aerospace, confirmed that the cyberattack is related to ransomware in a legally necessary notice filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
In an 8-K notification seen by TechCrunch, RTX described the cybersecurity incident as “involving ransomware.”
The company said the incident affected check-in software that existed “in a customer-specific network.”
“Our customers have moved to a backup or manual process and experienced delays and cancellations on certain flights,” RTX said.
RTX’s confirmation that ransomware was blamed on the outage was first revealed on Monday by European cybersecurity agency ENISA.
An RTX spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
Updated with new information from RTX SEC filing.
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