On Friday, an announcement was made by the Seattle Port Authority confirming their systems were compromised in a ransomware attack.

The cyber-attack took place on August 24. The port authority, also in charge of managing Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, reported experiencing certain system failures, a potential indication of a cyber-attack.

The incident is now being classified as a ‘ransomware’ assault, executed by a criminal gang named Rhysida. The same group was reportedly behind the cyber-attack on the British Library last year. Despite the ransom demand, the Seattle Port Authority has refused to comply. As a result, Rhysida might retaliate by publishing stolen data on their underground web platform.

“We are still investigating the extent of the data breach, but preliminary findings suggest that the attackers did manage to obtain some data from the Port in mid to late August,” said a representative for the Port. They also added that any employees or passengers will be informed if their information was stolen during the attack.

Devin Coldewey, a reporter for TechCrunch, witnessed the aftermath of the attack while travelling through the airport a few days later, observing that numerous airport systems were still non-functional.