Ensuring Uninterrupted Digital Operations for Airports in the Face of Cyber Threats

Airport Cyber Threats

In the increasingly digital age, the aviation industry faces an evolving threat landscape, with airport websites becoming prime targets for cyber-attacks. Recent high-profile incidents, such as the KillNet attacks and the Seattle Airport outage , underscore the critical need for fortified web hosting and application security. As these threats grow in sophistication and frequency, C-level executives in charge of technology and marketing at major airports must prioritize robust security measures. As a web hosting and security provider for some of the largest airports in the world, Fruition has a deep understanding of the unique threats airports face and how to protect against them.

Understanding the Threats

Cybercriminals employ diverse attack vectors, ranging from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) to sophisticated malware intrusions. These attacks aim to disrupt operations, compromise sensitive data, and damage reputations. Fruition’s responsibility as a leader in web hosting and security is to ensure that the airport websites we manage are resilient against such disruptions, maintaining their integrity and availability under all circumstances.

Our Strategic Approach to Airport Cyber Defense

To safeguard airport websites, we have developed a comprehensive security strategy centered around three key pillars:

1. Proactive Alerting Systems

Our first line of defense is an advanced alerting system that integrates seamlessly with our web application firewall (WAF), ingress, and hosting components. By continuously monitoring traffic patterns, we can rapidly detect anomalies indicative of an attack. Early detection enables us to respond swiftly and effectively, minimizing potential damage.

2. Collaborative WAF Management

Effective defense against cyber threats requires a collaborative approach. We establish strategic partnerships with airport IT and security teams, tailoring our WAF management to accommodate varying expertise levels. Our preferred tool, Cloudflare, allows for granular adjustments in real-time, ensuring that WAF rules are optimized both proactively and reactively. This partnership enables us to share intelligence and coordinate responses, enhancing overall security posture.

3. Resilient Application Architecture

Recognizing the dynamic nature of airport websites, we architect solutions that withstand high traffic volumes and maintain performance. Our approach includes:

• Asset and Database Caching: Utilizing Varnish, Cloudflare, and Redis for efficient asset delivery and reduced server load.
• CDN and Media Offloading: Leveraging services like Amazon S3 and Google Buckets for media delivery, reducing server strain during peak loads.
• WebSockets for Dynamic Data: Offloading dynamic data (i.e. FIDS data, parking lot availability, and TSA wait times) delivery to microservices, easing the demand on web servers.
• Load Balancing and Auto-Scaling: Implementing these techniques to accommodate traffic spikes seamlessly.
• Security and RBAC: Enforcing strict role-based access control to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access.
• Automatic Updates: We’ve built an automated software update workflow for hosted applications that alerts and stages security vulnerability patches for immediate testing.

Our Airport Hosting Offering

With our strategic approach to mitigating attacks established, Fruition developed a hosting platform to power our resilient application architecture. To meet the unique demands of airport websites, our hosting infrastructure integrates advanced security and innovative technologies:

• Geographically Diverse Infrastructure: Utilizing Kubernetes clusters across multiple locations to ensure high availability and robust security.
• Automated Updates and Scalable Operations: Streamline code updates and scale operations efficiently to handle traffic surges.
• SSL Management and Multi-Environment Support: Simplified SSL management and support for development, staging, and production environments.
• Comprehensive Data Encryption: Employing modern encryption protocols for data in transit and at rest, ensuring compliance with industry standards.
• Advanced Bot Management and Rate Limiting: Providing flexible controls to manage traffic spikes and mitigate automated bot attacks.
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Containerized hosting and comprehensive backup solutions ensure rapid recovery and minimal downtime.

Ensuring Business Continuity with Disaster Recovery

The last important piece of this is preparing for the worst-case scenario—a successful attack or infrastructure outage. In either of these situations, it’s our responsibility to ensure that we can redeploy the application quickly to get the site back online. These are some of the disaster recovery techniques we follow to allow our team to quickly respond to a site outage.

• Containerized Hosting: Utilizing Rancher and Kubernetes for rapid deployment across multiple cloud providers, ensuring minimal downtime.
• Comprehensive Backup and Recovery: Storing backups across various locations to facilitate quick restoration in any hosting environment.
• Effective Communication Systems: Maintaining direct communication channels with airport partners to ensure coordinated, timely responses.

This is a very high-level overview of the core elements that allow us to recover from a major disaster. Underneath the hood, we utilize robust services and orchestration that allow our team to redeploy sites to different zones, regions, or cloud providers in a very short amount of time. This gives us flexibility and numerous options to quickly restore a site in the face of an attack or infrastructure outage.

Conclusion

For marketing and technology leaders at airports, partnering with a dedicated, experienced digital service provider is crucial in navigating the cyber threat landscape. Our track record with esteemed partners such as FlyOntario.com, FlyDenver.com, and MetroAirport.com demonstrates our commitment to delivering secure, reliable web solutions. By implementing the strategies outlined above, we ensure that airport websites remain resilient, secure, and prepared for whatever challenges the future may hold. We look forward to sharing our expertise and strengthening our collaborations with airports seeking a steadfast digital ally.

If you have an upcoming hosting or redesign RFP, or just want to learn more about how we could support your current site, contact us today.