DDoS attack hits Russian flight booking system claimed by Ukrainian hackers

Ukrainian hacktivist operation IT Army has taken responsibility for a significant distributed denial-of-service attack against Russian local airline booking system Leonardo, which is used by over 50 Russian carriers, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Such a DDoS intrusion was reported by Russian state defense firm Rostec to have disrupted the operations of the country's flagship airline Aeroflot, as well as Pobeda and Rossiya Airlines. Rostec noted that "unprecedented" attacks have been targeted against Leonardo in the past few months, with nearly five attempted intrusions observed this month alone. "It's clear that there's an actual cyberwar waged against Russia. Its goal is to damage the Russian IT infrastructure and disrupt the work of the most important industries," said Rostec. IT Army's admission of compromising Leonardo comes weeks after several Canadian airports were targeted by a pro-Russia hacking operation. Air Canada, the country's largest airline, was also recently impacted by a data breach.