Alaska Air Grounds All Mainline Flights Amid IT Outage and Cyberattack Fears

Alaska Air has grounded all mainline flights nationwide due to an IT outage, with fears of a potential cyberattack after a warning from Google and Palo Alto Networks about the "Scattered Spider" hacking group targeting the aviation sector. The airline's IT systems were previously disrupted by the group in June.

Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) has requested a nationwide ground stop for all its mainline aircraft due to an IT outage, raising concerns about a potential cyberattack. The Seattle-based airline experienced issues with its IT systems, leading to the ground stop, which affected all destinations. The airline stated that there would be residual impacts to its operations throughout the evening, but did not provide further details [1].

This IT outage comes amid warnings from Google and Palo Alto Networks about the "Scattered Spider" hacking group targeting the aviation sector. The group, also known as Octo Tempest, has previously disrupted IT systems at Hawaiian Airlines, an Alaska Air Group company, in June. Alaska Air Group is still calculating the financial impact of that event [1].

Microsoft has also reported that the cybercriminal group, tracked as Octo Tempest, has shifted its focus to the airline industry. The group is known for its social engineering tactics and has recently been observed deploying DragonForce ransomware, particularly targeting VMware ESX hypervisor environments [2, 3].

Alaska Air Group maintains an operational fleet of 238 Boeing 737 aircraft and 87 Embraer 175 aircraft, according to its website. The airline's stock ended 0.28% lower on Friday in after-hours trading, down 17.34% on a year-to-date basis and up 37.23% over the past year [4].

The news of Alaska's IT issues and the threat posed by the "Scattered Spider" group highlight the growing concern over cybersecurity in the aviation industry. Airlines must enhance their defenses and incident response capabilities to mitigate the risk of such disruptions.

References:

[1] Reuters. (2025, July 20). Alaska Airlines resumes operations after IT outage. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/alaska-airlines-resumes-operations-after-it-outage-2025-07-21/

[2] Ynetnews. (2025, July 20). The "Scattered Spider" group targets the aviation industry. Retrieved from https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/by8zgcuull

[3] TechRepublic. (2025, July 20). Scattered Spider targets airlines with ransomware. Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-scattered-spider-targeting-airlines-ransomware-microsoft-warns/

[4] Benzinga. (2025, July 20). Alaska Air grounds all mainline flights nationwide amid IT outage. Retrieved from https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/07/46512591/alaska-air-grounds-all-mainline-flights-nationwide-amid-it-outage-cyberattack-fears-loom-after-scattered-spider-aviation-warning