US airport websites knocked offline by Russian-speaking hackers

Several U.S. airport websites were temporarily down on Monday morning following a cyberattack reportedly carried out by Russian-backed hacking group Killnet, according to news reports.  

The Atlanta and Los Angeles international airports were among 14 airport websites impacted by the attack, CNN reported.  

“ATL’s website (atl.com) is up and running after an incident early this morning that made it inaccessible to the public,” the airport said in a now deleted tweet. “An investigation into the cause of the incident is underway. At no time were operations at the airport impacted.” 

Last week, Killnet also claimed responsibility for knocking several U.S. state government websites offline, including in Colorado, Mississippi and Kentucky.

The hacking group posted on Telegram a list of state websites it planned to target with service disruptions. The list also included government pages from Florida, Alabama, Delaware and Hawaii, among other states.

The group also posted a photo on the channel captioned in English with “USA OFFLINE” and “F— NATO” over a graphic of a nuclear explosion surrounding the Statue of Liberty.

Killnet has also claimed responsibility for launching cyberattacks against NATO member countries including Estonia and Lithuania.