Chaos at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday has sparked fresh cyber-security fears after reports suggested a suspected malware-induced overload in air traffic control automation forced controllers to switch to manual procedures, triggering roughly five hours of delays across departure schedules. Sources speaking to CNN-News18 said the automation software showed signs of message-flooding and errant conflict alerts, a pattern cyber-experts associate with deliberate intrusion or malware-triggered overloads.
Officials and cyber-forensics teams are said to be examining whether the disruption stemmed from a targeted attempt to exploit interfaces or radar-synchronisation modules in legacy ATC systems. Sources pointed to the absence of recent software updates and limited real-time backups as factors that may have amplified the impact, leaving controllers to manage sequencing and clearances by hand.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed the outage affected departure sequencing and caused cascading flight delays; major carriers including IndiGo and Air India reported large-scale disruptions and urged passengers to check live flight updates. Investigators cautioned that findings are preliminary — but if malware is confirmed, experts say it would amount to one of the most serious cyber incidents in Indian civil aviation, underlining vulnerabilities in ageing automation systems.
Authorities have mobilised cyber-forensics teams and ordered an urgent review of patching and redundancy protocols. Passengers and airlines continue to face knock-on delays as the probe continues. (Source: CNN-News18)
