CLEVELAND-The FOX 8 I-Team has learned of more mystery surrounding computers that suddenly went out of service at Hopkins Airport possibly from hackers, and we’ve learned of more impact.
The FBI has been called in to help investigate. Multiple sources confirm officials have been looking into whether hackers got into the computer system and how they may have done it.
Monday, the I-Team broke the news of what happened over the weekend. Message boards inside the terminal went dark. They would normally show flights coming in and going out along with information about baggage claim. And, the city revealed email also went down at the airport.
Now, we’ve learned the outage has also affected other operations there including billing and payroll.
The FBI released a statement through spokesperson Vicki Anderson. She wrote, in part, “The FBI was contacted by city and airport officials, a collaborative assessment is being conducted to determine the cause of the technical issues.”
Planes have been taking off and landing without any trouble. So, mainly, the computer issues have been an inconvenience to travelers while at the terminal.
We spoke to Alex Hamerstone of TrustedSec, a company specializing in security even with computer systems.
He said, “Nothing’s 100 percent secure.” But, he added, computer systems should be set up to capture clues long before any hacking or technical troubles.
Hamerstone said, “A lot of it comes down to what systems they have in place prior to monitor on the network. What’s happening with their systems? If those things are in place, you can get a pretty good indication.”
He added,”It’s what we do in advance that’s really important to recover.”
We met travelers Tuesday wandering in the terminal confused without the message boards.
The airport recommends travelers check online to get flight information.
Cleveland City Hall released an update late Tuesday saying only the airport is still working to “restore” the computers.
The city did not provide any timetable for getting the systems back up and running. And, the city did not give any update on the investigation.
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