UK Arrests Man Over Sept. 19 Airport Cyberattack

British police and the U.K.'s National Crime Agency arrested a man in his 40s in West Sussex on Sept. 23 on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act and released him on conditional bail. The arrest follows a Sept. 19 cyberattack that disrupted automated check‑in, boarding and baggage systems at major European airports including London Heathrow, Brussels, Berlin, Dublin and Cork, forcing manual check‑ins, handwritten boarding passes and causing hundreds of delays and cancellations. Authorities say the incident targeted Collins Aerospace’s MUSE/ARINC SelfServ cMUSE passenger processing software. The EU's cybersecurity agency and researchers have linked the outage to third‑party ransomware, reportedly a Hardbit variant, though no criminal group has claimed responsibility and investigators have not attributed the attack to any actor. The NCA said the probe is at an early stage and is being supported by the National Cyber Security Centre and international partners. Airports are gradually restoring services, but some manual operations and delays continue as Collins and investigators work to rebuild and secure affected systems.