Cyberattack Disrupts European Airports, Highlighting Need for Decentralized Systems

A cybersecurity incident at Collins Aerospace, a major aviation technology provider, has crippled check-in and boarding systems across Europe's busiest airports. Brussels Airport confirmed 10 cancellations and hour-long delays as manual processes replace automated systems. The outage extends to London Heathrow and Berlin Airport, where technical banners warn passengers of extended wait times.

The attack underscores the vulnerability of centralized infrastructure in critical industries. While no cryptocurrency was directly involved, blockchain advocates point to such incidents as evidence for decentralized alternatives. The aviation sector's reliance on single-point-of-failure systems contrasts sharply with cryptocurrency networks' distributed architectures.

Frankfurt Airport remains operational but monitoring the situation closely. Service providers are working to restore systems, but the cascading disruptions demonstrate how traditional infrastructure fails under targeted attacks—a problem decentralized networks were specifically designed to solve.