The Port of Seattle is managing the repercussions of an ongoing cyberattack that started on Saturday, which continued to disrupt various operations on Sunday, including those at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Lance Lyttle, managing director of aviation for Sea-Tac Airport, stated that the Port detected “unauthorized activity” on its systems Saturday morning, believed to be a cyberattack.
“We can’t yet say when this will be resolved,” Lyttle said during a media press conference on Sunday.
The Port is collaborating with external experts to investigate the cause of the outage, according to Lyttle.
“We’re working around the clock to restore necessary systems and mitigate impacts to our passengers,” he added.
The Port initially reported the outage on Saturday morning shortly after 9 a.m. PT, describing it as an “internet and web systems outage.” Sea-Tac Airport later indicated that the outage was due to a “possible cyberattack.”
The outage is affecting baggage services and flight information display screens within the terminal at Sea-Tac Airport.
Long check-in lines were observed at the airport on Sunday, with some passengers being checked in using a printed list.
The Transportation Security Administration indicated that there was no impact on operations at security checkpoints, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection stated that its systems were unaffected.
There were six canceled flights on Saturday at the airport, according to FlightAware, and as of 8 p.m. PT on Sunday, there were five canceled flights. Sea-Tac Airport typically handles about 1,400 arrivals and departures daily.
Alaska Airlines mentioned earlier on Sunday that its systems had not been directly impacted by the cyberattack but advised passengers to “avoid checking a bag if possible.”
As of Sunday at 8 p.m. PT, the Port and airport’s website remained down, as well as the airport’s mobile app, FlySEA.
The Port noted on Saturday that its Maritime Facilities phone systems were down. Email and phone services for Port staff were also affected.
The outages occurred a month after a flawed update from cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike caused a global IT disruption, which also impacted Sea-Tac and various other airports nationwide.
GeekWire photographer Kevin Lisota contributed to this story.
