Japan Airlines was hit with a cyber attack on the morning of December 26, 2024, that saw the airline disconnecting some network equipment to prevent large amounts of data from flowing out.
The airline temporarily halted sales of domestic and international tickets, but those functions have now been restored. However, you cannot purchase an upgrade at the airport or standby for an earlier flight.
Japan Airlines Announcement:
Regarding the Impact on Operations Due to Network Disruptions (Fourth Report)
Since 7:24 AM (JST) on December 26, 2024, there was a disruption in the network equipment connecting internal and external systems, resulting in malfunctions in systems communicating with external systems.
・The cause of the failure and the impact range of the system issues have been identified, and the system has been restored.
・This issue was caused by a failure due to the transmission of a large amount of data, and there has been no customer data leakage or virus damage.
・Sales for domestic and international flights departing today have resumed.
・The standby service at airport for domestic flights departing today has been suspended.
We will inform you in the next update as soon as there is any progress.
There is no impact on safe operations.
Japan Airlines X-Feed:
Conclusion
It seems that Japan Airlines was able to prevent the large amount of data from being sent out by unplugging a router, but it is unclear what went out before the airline realized what was happening.
There don’t appear to be flight cancellations due to this event, but some flights have been delayed. That is quite an extraordinary situation in Japan, where punctuality is taken seriously.
