The recent cyberattack on Collins Aerospace that disrupted operations at major European airports including Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin Brandenburg has exposed a critical vulnerability in modern aviation infrastructure. While the specific nature of this attack remains unclear, it highlights the catastrophic potential of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Common Use Passenger Processing Systems (CUPPS), the shared digital backbone that keeps global air travel moving.
A Domino Effect
Modern airports operate on a fundamentally interconnected model that prioritizes efficiency over security resilience. The CUPPS architecture allows multiple airlines to share check-in desks, boarding gates, and processing equipment through centralized platforms. This shared infrastructure model, while economically beneficial, creates a single point of failure, where one successful attack can cascade across the entire aviation ecosystem.
Collins Aerospace, one of the primary providers of these systems, operates cloud-based passenger processing platforms that serve airlines and airports worldwide. When their systems function normally, passengers experience:
- Seamless check-in processes
- Efficient boarding procedures
- Streamlined connections between flights
However, this same interconnectivity becomes a liability when targeted by sophisticated cyber threats.
What Happens During a DDoS Attack
A DDoS attack involves overwhelming target systems with hostile traffic, requests, or data packets from multiple sources, rendering them unable to process legitimate user requests. In the context of CUPPS infrastructure, a DDoS attack could target several critical components:
- Malicious actors could flood check-in applications, boarding systems, or passenger databases with seemingly legitimate requests, exhausting server resources and preventing real passengers from accessing services
- Attackers might saturate the network connections between airlines, airports, and centralized processing systems, effectively cutting off communication channels that enable passenger processing
The interconnected nature of CUPPS means that a successful DDoS attack doesn’t just affect one airline or airport, it creates a domino effect across the global aviation network.
The Collins Aerospace Incident
The recent Collins Aerospace incident demonstrated this vulnerability in real-time:
- Immediate Operational Disruption: When digital systems fail, airports must revert to manual check-in and boarding processes. This creates massive bottlenecks, as manual processes can handle only a fraction of the passenger volume that automated systems manage. What normally takes seconds via digital processing can extend to hours when done manually.
- Multi-Airport Impact: Because airlines use the same CUPPS providers across multiple airports, an attack on the central system simultaneously affects operations in different cities, countries, and continents. The Collins Aerospace incident impacted airports from London to Brussels to Berlin, demonstrating how a single point of failure can create international disruption.
- Airline Resource Strain: Airlines operating through shared systems find themselves unable to process passengers, manage boarding, or coordinate connections. This forces them to implement costly emergency procedures, deploy additional staff, and manage passenger frustration across their entire network.
- Economic Consequences: Flight delays and cancellations create immediate financial impacts through compensation costs, rebooking expenses, and lost revenue. The interconnected nature of airline operations means that disruptions compound, a delayed flight affects not just its passengers, but connecting flights, crew schedules, and aircraft positioning for subsequent routes.
Why Aviation is Highly Vulnerable to DDoS Attacks
Several factors make DDoS attacks particularly devastating in the aviation context:
- Just-in-Time Operations: Modern airlines operate on thin margins with little redundancy. Flight schedules are optimized to maximize aircraft utilization, meaning that even short disruptions create scheduling conflicts that take days to resolve.
- Peak Period Vulnerability: Airports experience surge demand during peak travel periods, holidays, and business travel times. A DDoS attack during these periods would affect the maximum number of passengers and create the greatest operational chaos.
- International Complexity: Aviation systems must coordinate across different time zones, regulatory frameworks, and operational standards. When shared systems fail, the complexity of manual coordination across international boundaries becomes nearly impossible to manage effectively.
- Passenger Safety Considerations: While DDoS attacks typically don’t directly threaten flight safety, the operational chaos they create can indirectly compromise safety through rushed decision-making, overwhelmed staff, and compromised communication systems.
The Shared Nature of CUPPS
The shared nature of CUPPS creates several specific vulnerabilities that make them attractive targets for DDoS attacks:
- Centralized Cloud Dependencies: Many CUPPS providers operate through centralized cloud platforms that serve multiple clients simultaneously. This concentration of services means that overwhelming one system affects all connected airlines and airports.
- API Vulnerabilities: The integration between different airline systems and shared airport infrastructure relies heavily on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These connection points can become targets for attackers seeking to disrupt data flow between systems.
- Legacy System Integration: Many airports and airlines still rely on older systems that weren’t designed with modern cybersecurity threats in mind. When these legacy systems integrate with newer shared platforms, they can create security gaps that attackers exploit.
- Limited Redundancy: The economic efficiency that makes CUPPS attractive also means that most systems lack robust backup infrastructure. When primary systems fail, there are often no adequate secondary systems to maintain operations.
Addressing DDoS Vulnerability in CUPPS
The aviation industry faces a threat landscape that is different from most other industries, especially since much of it can’t be separated from the arms industry. Geopolitical tensions may cause nation-state actors to view aviation infrastructure as strategic targets. Disrupting air travel can serve political objectives by demonstrating vulnerability or creating economic pressure. The recent attack on Collins Aerospace happened 4 days after it was awarded a contract by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) on September 16, 2025.
Addressing the DDoS vulnerability in CUPPS requires a multi-layered approach:
- Infrastructure Diversification: Reducing dependence on single providers by implementing redundant systems from different vendors, ensuring that the failure of one system doesn’t cripple entire operations
- Advanced DDoS Protection: Implementing sophisticated multi layered protection systems that can identify and mitigate DDoS attacks before they overwhelm critical systems
- Testing and Validation: Conducting continuous, nondisruptive testing to validate that DDoS defenses function as expected under simulated attack scenarios, ensuring that protective measures can effectively safeguard critical aviation systems when they are needed most
While the shared infrastructure model of CUPPS has delivered significant efficiency gains and cost savings, it has also created a critical vulnerability that threatens the stability of global air travel. The aviation industry must balance the economic benefits of interconnected systems with the security risks they create. This doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning shared infrastructure, but rather implementing robust cybersecurity measures that can protect against DDoS and other cyber threats while maintaining operational efficiency.
As air travel continues to grow and digital systems become even more integral to aviation operations, the potential impact of successful cyberattacks will only increase. The industry must act proactively to address these vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious actors seeking to cause maximum disruption to global transportation networks.
To learn more about leveraging continuous, nondisruptive DDoS testing to eliminate the risk of DDoS downtime, speak with an expert.
Skim Summary: How a Single DDoS Attack Can Cripple Global Aviation
The recent cyber incident at Collins Aerospace disrupted operations at major European airports including Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin Brandenburg. While the exact nature of the attack is still unclear, it highlights how exposed the aviation industry is to the potential impact of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Common Use Passenger Processing Systems (CUPPS).
Key Takeaways:
- Single Point of Failure: CUPPS’ shared infrastructure means one successful attack can ripple across multiple airlines and airports.
- Real-World Impact: The Collins disruption forced manual check-ins, created bottlenecks, and interrupted passenger travel across several countries.
- Economic Consequences: Delays and cancellations quickly cascade into costs from compensation, rebooking, additional staffing, and lost revenue.
- Why Aviation is Vulnerable: Lean margins, peak travel pressures, international coordination complexity, and legacy systems increase the sector’s susceptibility to disruption.
- Geopolitical Dimensions: The incident occurred shortly after Collins Aerospace was awarded a NATO contract, raising questions about strategic targeting.
- The Path Forward: Aviation needs infrastructure diversification, advanced DDoS protection, and continuous, nondisruptive DDoS testing to reduce the risk of similar events in the future.
FAQ
Q1. What is CUPPS and why is it a risk?
CUPPS is a shared IT backbone used by airlines and airports for check-in, boarding, and passenger processing. While efficient, it creates a single point of failure that is highly vulnerable to disruption, including from DDoS attacks.
Q2. What happened in the Collins Aerospace incident?
A cyberattack disrupted CUPPS platforms, forcing multiple European airports to switch to manual processing. This caused severe delays, cancellations, and financial losses. While it is not confirmed that this attack was a DDoS event, it illustrates the potential consequences if a DDoS attack were to target aviation systems.
Q3. Why are DDoS attacks so damaging to aviation?
Because aviation relies on just-in-time operations with very limited redundancy, even short disruptions can create cascading delays across flights, crews, and global schedules.
Q4. Do DDoS attacks threaten flight safety?
Directly, no. However, the operational chaos they create can compromise safety indirectly through overwhelmed staff, rushed decisions, and breakdowns in communication systems.
Q5. How do geopolitics influence aviation cyber risk?
Air travel is closely tied to national and economic security. Nation-state actors may see aviation infrastructure as a strategic target for disruption or leverage.
Q6. What can the aviation industry do to defend against DDoS attacks?
- Diversify infrastructure across multiple providers
- Deploy advanced, multi-layered DDoS protection solutions
- Conduct continuous, nondisruptive DDoS testing that validates mitigation systems without disrupting live operations
