O'Hare, Midway Airport Websites Part of Cyberattack On U.S. Airports

CHICAGO — The websites for Chicago’s two international airports were part of a suspected cyberattack that also targeted other U.S. airports on Monday, officials said, and a published report indicates the attack came from inside Russia.

Chicago Transportation officials said that the websites at O’Hare International and Midway Airport went down early Monday as part of the attack. In a statement, the City of Chicago’s Department of Aviation confirmed the cyberattack but said that security and flights at both airports were not affected.

The two airports were hit by the attack as were LaGuardia Airport in New York, Los Angeles International Airport, and other sites, including Atlanta, ABC News reported.

“Early Monday, FlyChicago.com and related websites for O’Hare and Midway international airports went offline,” the Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement. “No airport operations have been affected. City of Chicago IT staff are currently working to restore the website's functionality. The City’s Information Security Office at the Department of Assets, Information & Services is investigating the cause of the outage."

The cyberattack was first reported around 2 a.m. CST on Monday, according to ABC News. Citing sources, ABC News reported that an attacker from within the Russian Federation launched the attack. As of Monday afternoon, the websites for both Chicago airports were back up and running.

"It's an inconvenience," the source told ABC News. The attacks have resulted in targeted "denial of public access" to public-facing web domains that report airport wait times and congestion.