CLEVELAND — Technical issues at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport stretch into the fifth day with very little being disclosed by airport security officials.
What is known is that the technical issues impacted several systems at the airport beginning Sunday, including the airport’s email systems, as well as the screens that display flight and baggage information throughout the airport. For the time being, airport officials have recommended that travelers check the airport’s website for the latest information, or speak to airport employees to be directed to where they need to go.
City officials said that only a "small number of airport systems" has been affected, such as email and in-airport flight and baggage displays. Accounting, payroll and timekeeping information is all maintained at the city level and was not compromised. The city affirmed that no personal information was accessed by "unauthorized personnel."
The FBI has joined efforts with city and airport officials to determine what is causing the technical issues at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. They released this statement Tuesday:
“The FBI was contacted by city and airport officials, a collaborative assessment is being conducted to determine the cause of the technical issues. Additional information is not available at this time and will be released when appropriate.”
RELATED: City requests federal assistance as technical issues at Hopkins stretch into second day
News 5 has repeatedly asked airport officials if the technical issues are the result of a hack or some kind of malicious intrusion into the airport’s systems. Officials would not comment on whether or not their systems were hacked. The mayor's office also hasn't answered questions about when the issues were first noticed, if other functions have been affected, or if specialized contractors have been brought in to address the situation.
But a cybersecurity expert with Strongsville-based Trusted Sec believes what happened is likely criminal.
"You usually wouldn't bring in the FBI if you just had a hard drive that failed," said Paul Sems. "If a system was off-line because of a power outage or a bad power supply, you'd call the vendor of that system and you'd bring it in and you'd be back up and running shortly. The fact that they have made a public statement that the FBI is involved and that the FBI does have an internet crime division, it makes us speculate there was a some type of electronic or computer fraud that was taking place."
The most recent news release provided by airport and city officials on Thursday reiterates only what was already known about the issues: there are no impacts to flights, safety or security operations, and the airport continues to work on restoring the displays and email system.
If nothing else, Sems believes the outage should serve as a warning to the airport that security doesn't end with screening passengers.
"I think this is a shot across the bow to say 'hey, you know what? Security is important," said Sems. "We need to make those investments ahead of tie so that these problems don't occur in the future."
