Securing the airport of today and tomorrow: an integrated cybersecurity approach for airport operators
Airports are classified as critical national infrastructure in most jurisdictions. In the EU alone, air transport accounts for 58.4% of all cyber incidents in the transport sector - a signal that resonates far beyond Europe. Every airport operator now faces the same tension: digital transformation drives efficiency, but every step forward widens the cybersecurity attack surface. This white paper shows how to move forward without leaving the door open.
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Map the exposure before an attacker does
Airports run on layered, interdependent technology. Legacy OT systems now share data flows with cloud platforms, biometric services and AI-driven analytics. Thousands of connected devices, dozens of third-party suppliers, millions of identities moving through every day, each one a potential cybersecurity threat entry point. When something fails, it fails in public, in real time, exposing operations, finances and the personal data of millions of passengers. In September 2025, a single ransomware attack on a shared check-in platform forced Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin Brandenburg into manual operations for days. The affected airports had not been directly targeted. Their supplier had.
Securing the airport of today and tomorrow maps the full picture and what to do about it:
- The six threat categories targeting airports today: ransomware, state-aligned actors, supply-chain compromise, identity attacks, DDoS and blended cyber-physical operations
- How AI is accelerating every one of them
- What Part-IS, NIS 2 and ICAO Annex 17 demand from airport operators
- How Thales brings cybersecurity, identity, biometrics, OT and connectivity together in a single accountable partnership across the full airport
The trusted airport is a resilient one. Start building.
