Europe’s aviation sector has once again found itself at the mercy of cyber criminals. In 2017, the WannaCry ransomware crippled systems across the globe, grounding flights and halting operations at FedEx and Telefonica. In 2021, the DarkSide gang brought the U.S. Colonial Pipeline to a standstill, underscoring how ransomware can paralyse critical infrastructure. More recently, Scandinavian airline SAS faced outages after suspected ransomware intrusions, reflecting a broader trend that Thales reports has grown by 600% in the aviation sector over the past year. “Aviation is a critical artery of Europe’s economy,” says Prof. Ciaran Martin, former head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.