Europe’s Aviation Cyberattack Was Bound To Happen

And I was there when it happened. A software engineer’s look at Europe’s latest aviation chaos…

A quick snap from one of my flights. Photo by author.

I am not a nervous passenger. I’ll take on turbulence head-first, heck, I might even enjoy the bumpy ride, of which I got plenty of on my way back to Dublin from Budapest. Airports however, as much as I love them for being the cultural melting-pot and the borderless square-kilometre that they are, they always raise my heart-rate. Without exception, my Apple Watch tells me I need to calm the fudge down and take a breather. This time was no exception. And I had an extra reason to stress — a Europe-wide cyberattack on airline and airport software, while I was trying to get back home.

A flight being late or cancelled is already something I tend to worry about. The airline trying to squeeze extra money out of me for oversized luggage (it never is, I know how to pack), is another cause for concern. A sudden gate change is another, and the same is an overly long security queue. Except for actual flying. I try to prevent all of these stress triggers by arriving early, buying fast-track security, packing only what I actually need, making sure my phone is fully charged, even having a screenshot of the ticket, just in case the Airline app doesn’t work. You’d think that airports and…