UK nabs suspect in ransomware attack that disrupted major European airports

A man has been arrested in West Sussex by the UK’s National Crime Agency after a ransomware attack caused massive delays at several European airports last ￰0￱ arrest, made on Wednesday, targeted a man in his forties who is now facing charges under the UK’s Computer Misuse ￰1￱ has been released on conditional ￰2￱ agency says the investigation is still “in its early stages.” Hackers cripple check-in software, airports switch to manual mode Paul Foster, who runs the NCA’s cyber unit, confirmed that the team is still collecting evidence and working with other ￰3￱ weekend attack brought chaos to airports in London, Berlin, and Brussels, as critical check-in software suddenly failed, as Cryptopolitan ￰4￱ system, known as MUSE, is managed by Collins Aerospace, a company based in the United ￰5￱ used ransomware to completely freeze operations, shutting down kiosks, bag-drop stations, and boarding ￰6￱ left airports scrambling to handle everything manually, slowing lines and forcing several flight ￰7￱ European Union Agency for Cybersecurity confirmed the hackers had locked the company’s systems and made them ￰8￱ disruption started Friday and lasted into Monday, with Heathrow and Berlin Brandenburg airports recovering ￰9￱ Brussels Airport continued to ￰10￱ of this week, officials in Brussels are telling passengers to check in online before arriving, as their systems are still ￰11￱ the cyber unit was tackling airport systems, the UK’s official statistics office was launching its own internal ￰12￱ Office for National Statistics is now dropping some of its published reports, freezing projects, and hiring 100 new staff to fix problems in its economic ￰13￱ includes pausing or cutting output in crime, health, and regional reporting.

A spokesperson from the ONS told Bloomberg that the agency is trying to shift more people and funds into economic reporting, especially the areas that feed directly into Bank of England ￰14￱ ONS has been under pressure since its labor market survey collapsed almost two years ago, and like many agencies globally, it saw a huge drop in public response after the pandemic, so its data got quickly deemed ￰15￱ then, more issues have surfaced, including questionable numbers on prices, trade, and retail ￰16￱ plan to replace the broken survey has been delayed until at least the end of 2026. Don’t just read crypto ￰17￱ ￰18￱ to our newsletter. It's free .