When a Coffee Shop Grounds Your Take-Offs Your Security is Only as Strong as Your Weakest Latte

Not long ago, a jet bridge at a major airport froze mid-movement. Passengers sat idle, flights delayed, operations scrambled. The root cause? A compromised Wi-Fi router, inside a coffee shop. This wasn’t a black swan cyberattack. It was a predictable, preventable failure. And it perfectly illustrates what’s broken in how we secure modern airports.

Airports Are Now Digital Ecosystems, But Protected With Analog Defenses

Airports today operate as sprawling digital networks. Everything from baggage systems to HVAC units, lighting, access controls, jet bridges, and even retail shops are interconnected. Like most automated environments, these integrations improve efficiency but expand the attack surface.

If a single compromised device, like a retail router, can cascade into mission-critical infrastructure, it’s clear that some foundation aspects of a good security programme are lacking, namely segmentation and asset visibility.

When Operational Tech Shares the Same Airspace

It’s not just a mechanical problem when a jet bridge fails, it’s a cyber one. Jet bridges may seem like old-world machines, but under the hood, they’re governed by embedded cyber physical systems. These are devices, often running proprietary software, designed without modern cybersecurity in mind. Worse yet, they often share networks with unrelated systems like POS terminals, digital signage, or guest Wi-Fi.

This kind of flat, poorly segmented network is a breeding ground for risk. And no matter how robust your IT/OT security stack is, you can’t protect assets that you do not have awareness of.

The Visibility Gap is Real

Most airports invest heavily in traditional IT security: antivirus, firewalls, SIEM platforms. But those tools are built for laptops, not loading bridges. They don’t speak Modbus or BACnet. They don’t see your legacy baggage controller or the out-of-support HVAC system running the terminal. And they definitely do not interact with the plethora of IoT, IIoT sensors that can be found across all areas of the airport and its environs.

So you’re left with:

• Blind spots in your most critical systems
• Blind spots in connections and interconnections between devices and systems
• Patchwork protection that’s reactive, not proactive
• Delays in response because you never saw the threat coming

The BMS Problem is the Jet Bridge Problem but Scaled

Beyond jet bridges, your building management systems (BMS), access controls, elevators and CCTVs (all critical to security and operations) live in this same world of cyber-physical risk.

Many of these systems were never meant to interconnect. But over time, integrations were bolted on. Updates were patched in. And now, you’ve got a tangled web of dependencies where one system’s vulnerability becomes another’s threat vector.

Without a unified, real-time view across these systems, your security posture rapidly becomes guesswork- something we hear from customers starting out their security journey all the time.

Protection That Works Starts With These Features

Security in a modern airport demands more than perimeter defense. It requires deep visibility, active intelligence, and surgical segmentation. Here’s what works:

• Comprehensive Asset Visibility: Map every device, no matter how old or obscure
• Proactive Exposure Management: Identify vulnerabilities before attackers do
• AI-Driven Threat Intelligence and Early Warnings: Let machine learning find patterns you can’t see and base your remediation efforts on vulnerabilities that are being exploited in the wild
• Network Segmentation: Isolate critical operations from less trusted zones
• Compliance Mapping: Align with regulations like NIS2, ICAO, and the Cyber Resilience Act, not just for audits but for actual risk reduction

A Real-World Win

One of our clients, an international airport handling tens of millions of passengers annually, partnered with Armis to finally gain visibility and control over their operational environment. This resulted in:

• The team was able to focus in on the risks that mattered, over 50 critical vulnerabilities identified and remediated
• The team built on what they already had, continuous risk monitoring was integrated into existing IT workflows
• Systems like this can’t have downtime, so we did this with zero disruption to day-to-day operations

This case wasn’t about installing more tools. It was about getting the right visibility, context, and control across both IT and OT environments.

The Cost of Inaction

Every minute a jet bridge is down delays a flight. Every flight delay hits revenue, disrupts logistics, and chips away at passenger confidence. And every unmanaged system is a liability waiting to be exploited.

Cybersecurity is no longer a back-office concern. It’s a frontline issue that impacts uptime, safety, brand reputation, and the bottom line.

If you’re in charge of airport operations, it’s time to move beyond IT security checklists. Look under the hood of your operational infrastructure. Understand your risks. Demand visibility.

And above all, act before something breaks because by the time the passengers are stuck on the tarmac, it’s already too late.