The Northern Airport Authority has refuted claims made on social networking sites yesterday that the information technology system of Noi Bai International Airport was hacked.

The users of some Facebook accounts yesterday afternoon uploaded photos of several screens in the airport’s check-in area to show that they did not display normal flight information, but various colours and technical data.

Their assumption that the airport’s IT system had been hacked immediately drew public attention, as it had just late last month when an alleged Chinese hacker group carried out serious cyber attacks on both Noi Bai and HCM City’s Tan Son Nhat International airport, the two largest airports of the country.

However, Vu The Phiet, director of the Northern Airport Authority, said yesterday’s incident was not a cyber attack.

Five out of 60 screens yesterday afternoon were affected by a problem in data transfer from computers to the screens, he said. It was quickly fixed by the airport’s IT team.

Phiệt said the incident affected six booths of national flag-carrier Vietnam Airlines. Vietnam Airlines officials had to manually do the check-in process for passengers for a while. This problem, however, did not affect the overall activities of the company, he said.

In the July cyber attacks on Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports, hackers managed to display pictures and words insulting Vietnam and the Philippines, regarding the East Sea (South China Sea) dispute, on the information screens in the check-in areas. The official website of Vietnam Airlines was also hacked and replaced by the same picture.

The incident drew both domestic and international attention and raised alarm over Vietnam’s cyber security preparations. 

VNS