The South African state-owned company that provides air traffic control (ATC) and weather operations for approximately 10% of the world's airspace discovered ransomware-linked malware in an operational technology (OT) network, according to public documents released this month.
The company, Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS), believes that its technical team stopped the attack, but it issued a request for quotes (RFQ) seeking cyber-forensics firms to investigate the incident. A second attack, possibly an insider's theft of data, is also part of the investigation request.
It's unclear when the incident actually occurred, but ATNS requested cyber-forensic services starting Sept. 18, according to the documents.
"Monitoring systems detected suspicious activity within operational technology (OT) environments supporting weather-related services to Air Traffic Services," the company stated in its service request. "Preliminary investigations identified malware commonly associated with the early stages of ransomware attacks."