Grounded by a Glitch: What the Airport Chaos Teaches Us About Supply Chain Cybersecurity

Grounded by a Glitch - What the Airport Chaos Teaches Us About Supply Chain Cybersecurity - Inavate Consulting

Following a recent cyberattack on a third-party software supplier, airports across Europe have faced significant disruption. This incident serves as a wake-up call for the aviation sector, and any industry tethered to digital systems, that your cybersecurity is only as resilient as the weakest link in your supply chain.

The attack, as reported in Infosecurity magazine, impacted major hubs including Heathrow, Brussels, Berlin, and Dublin. It was traced back to a suspected cyberattack on Collins Aerospace’s Muse software, a platform used by airlines to manage check-ins, boarding passes, and baggage tagging.

With the system offline, some airlines were forced to revert to pen-and-paper processes, causing delays, missed connections, and widespread frustration.

The Supply Chain Weak Link

This wasn’t a direct attack on an airport or airline, it was a strike against a shared digital service used across the aviation ecosystem. That’s what makes supply chain attacks so dangerous: they exploit trust. When a third-party platform is compromised, the ripple effect can be immediate and severe, especially in industries like aviation where operational continuity is critical.

Lessons for Every Sector

While this incident hit aviation, the lessons apply far beyond the runway. Whether you’re in healthcare, finance, retail, or technology, your business likely depends on third-party software and services. If those providers aren’t secure, neither are you.

Here’s what organisations should take away from this:

1. Supply Chain Risk Must Be Proactively Managed

ISO 27001 places clear responsibility on organisations to manage the risks that come with outsourcing. Clause 8.1 (Operational planning and control) requires you to plan and control not only internal processes but also those you outsource. In practice, that means you can’t just hand over critical services to a third party and hope for the best.

On top of that, Annex A.5.19 (Information security in the supply chain) makes it very clear that you need to vet suppliers, assess their security posture, and hold them to your standards. Not just during onboarding, but on an ongoing basis.

2. Prepare

Organisations must assume that systems will fail and rehearse manual workarounds, offline operations, and contingency plans. This is especially critical in sectors where downtime has real world consequences.

3. Improve Cross-Industry Collaboration

Cyberattacks don’t respect borders or business models. Improved information sharing between governments, regulators, and private companies is essential to accelerate response and recovery. The faster threat intelligence is shared, the quicker systems can be patched and operations restored.

4. Internal Audits

Internal audits should go beyond your own infrastructure. They must include a review of critical third-party tools, their update cycles, incident response capabilities, and contractual obligations. ISO 27001 provides a framework for this, but it’s up to organisations to apply it in a way that adds value to their strategic business decisions.

Cyber Resilience Starts with Visibility

This incident is a wake-up call. It’s not enough to secure your own systems, you must understand and manage the risks that come with every vendor, platform, and integration point.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the perfect time to revisit your supply chain strategy, strengthen your internal audits, and ensure your business can withstand the unexpected.

Because in today’s threat landscape, it’s not a matter of if – but when.

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