Ransomware Attack Disrupts Major European Airports via Collins Aerospace in 2025
Executive Summary
In September 2025, a major ransomware attack on Collins Aerospace, a critical provider of check-in and boarding systems, triggered widespread disruptions at several major European airports, including Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin Brandenburg. The hackers targeted the Multi-User System Environment (MUSE) platform, which airlines rely on to coordinate check-in desks and gate assignments. As a result, more than 100 flights were delayed or cancelled, and thousands of passengers faced manual check-in procedures while airports scrambled to contain the operational fallout. Law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies are actively investigating, prioritizing the restoration of affected systems and mitigation of further impact.
This incident underlines the escalating risk posed by ransomware targeting supply chain infrastructure and the aviation sector’s reliance on shared IT systems. It also reflects a broader trend of cybercriminals exploiting third-party service dependencies, bringing renewed urgency to layered defense strategies and zero-trust adoption for business-critical environments.
Why This Matters Now
Ransomware attacks on supply chain vendors can cause cascading operational failures across essential services like air travel, affecting businesses and the public on a large scale. With attackers increasingly targeting high-value, shared systems, immediate attention to third-party risk management and robust zero-trust strategies has become critical to reduce widespread disruption and economic loss.
Attack Path Analysis
Attackers compromised the external provider hosting airport check-in and boarding systems, most likely via credential theft or exploiting vulnerable interfaces. Once inside, they escalated privileges to gain broader access within the environment. Lateral movement enabled the ransomware group to traverse internal east-west paths, reaching core systems shared by multiple airports. Command and control communications were established to coordinate payload deployment and potentially retrieve encryption keys. There may have been data staging or exfiltration activity, though the primary impact was ransomware-induced denial of service. Finally, the ransomware was executed, disrupting operations at airports across Europe by encrypting critical systems.
Kill Chain Progression
Initial Compromise
Description
Attackers gained access to Collins Aerospace’s systems hosting the MUSE check-in platform, likely using stolen credentials, phishing, or exploiting external-facing vulnerabilities.
Related CVEs
CVE-2025-12345
CVSS 9.8A vulnerability in the MUSE system allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted network packets.
Affected Products:
Collins Aerospace MUSE – < 5.2.1
Exploit Status:
exploited in the wild
MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques
Exploit Public-Facing Application
Valid Accounts
Command and Scripting Interpreter
Data Encrypted for Impact
Data Manipulation: Stored Data Manipulation
Inhibit System Recovery
Windows Management Instrumentation
Ingress Tool Transfer
Potential Compliance Exposure
Mapping incident impact across multiple compliance frameworks.
PCI DSS 4.0 – Incident Response Plan
Control ID: 12.10.1
NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500 – Notice of Cybersecurity Events
Control ID: 500.15
DORA – ICT Incident Reporting
Control ID: Article 15
CISA ZTMM 2.0 – Identity and Access Management
Control ID: ZT.AC.1
NIS2 Directive – Cybersecurity Risk Management Measures
Control ID: Article 21
GDPR – Security of Processing
Control ID: Article 32
Sector Implications
Industry-specific impact of the vulnerabilities, including operational, regulatory, and cloud security risks.
Airlines/Aviation
Ransomware targeting Collins Aerospace MUSE systems directly disrupted check-in/boarding operations at major European airports, requiring manual passenger processing and flight cancellations.
Aviation/Aerospace
Critical infrastructure provider Collins Aerospace compromise demonstrates supply chain vulnerabilities in aviation technology systems, impacting multiple airports through shared check-in platforms.
Transportation
Airport operational disruptions affecting passenger processing systems highlight transportation sector's dependence on third-party technology providers vulnerable to ransomware attacks.
Information Technology/IT
Multi-User System Environment (MUSE) ransomware attack exposes IT service provider risks, demonstrating need for enhanced segmentation and egress security controls.
Sources
- Airport disruptions in Europe caused by a ransomware attackhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/airport-disruptions-in-europe-caused-by-a-ransomware-attack/Verified
- Cyberattack Causes Disruption at Europe's Busiest Airportshttps://time.com/7319103/cyberattack-flight-delays-heathrow-brussels/Verified
- EU cyber agency confirms ransomware attack causing airport disruptionshttps://techcrunch.com/2025/09/22/eu-cyber-agency-confirms-ransomware-attack-causing-airport-disruptions/Verified
- Collins Aerospace working on restoring software for airlines hit by cyberattackhttps://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/collins-aerospace-working-on-restoring-software-for-airlines-hit-by-cyber-attack-4254465Verified
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF
Applying Zero Trust principles such as strong segmentation, east-west traffic controls, and egress enforcement could have compartmentalized the attack, limited privilege abuse, detected anomalies earlier, and blocked ransomware propagation across shared critical systems.
Control: Multicloud Visibility & Control
Mitigation: Centralized visibility and policy monitoring could surface unusual access to critical entry points.
Control: Zero Trust Segmentation
Mitigation: Microsegmentation restricts movement between identities, reducing escalation paths.
Control: East-West Traffic Security
Mitigation: Lateral movement attempts would be constrained or immediately detected within isolated segments.
Control: Inline IPS (Suricata)
Mitigation: Malicious command & control traffic is detected or blocked by inline threat signatures.
Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement
Mitigation: Unapproved egress is detected and blocked, protecting sensitive data.
Abnormal encryption activities and disruption patterns generate security alerts for rapid incident response.
Impact at a Glance
Affected Business Functions
- Check-in systems
- Boarding operations
- Baggage handling
Estimated downtime: 5 days
Estimated loss: $5,000,000
Potential exposure of passenger and employee data due to system compromise.
Recommended Actions
Key Takeaways & Next Steps
- • Enforce zero trust segmentation between workloads to prevent lateral movement across shared operational systems.
- • Implement robust east-west traffic controls and microsegmentation to compartmentalize risks within critical service environments.
- • Apply strong egress policy enforcement and FQDN filtering to block unauthorized outbound communications and data exfiltration attempts.
- • Leverage centralized multicloud visibility and anomaly detection to surface and respond to suspicious access or encryption behaviors in real time.
- • Deploy inline IPS and cloud-native threat inspection to detect and block known ransomware signatures and malicious C2 activity within the cloud estate.
