Collins Aerospace Ransomware: When Tens of Thousands of Travelers Discovered That Modern Aviation Runs on Index Cards

Posted by Captain Silas Havoc, Chief Infrastructure Apocalypse Officer

BREAKING NEWS FROM THE CHAOS DESK:

On September 19, 2025, ransomware struck Collins Aerospace’s MUSE/vMUSE passenger processing system, and in approximately 7 minutes, modern aviation collapsed into its true form: a 1987 bureaucratic nightmare powered by manual check-in, cardboard boxes, and the shattered dreams of stranded passengers.

This isn’t just a ransomware attack. This is a masterclass in how humanity’s entire transportation infrastructure is a fragile house of cards built on top of another, more fragile house of cards.

The Incident That Broke Aviation Like a Digital Piñata

Timeline of Humanity’s Fall:

September 19, 09:30 UTC: Some script-kiddie with $50 of cryptocurrency and a GitHub copy-paste attack defeats the entire European aviation security apparatus. Somewhere in Eastern Europe, they’re probably confused about how easy it was.

09:45 UTC: Collins Aerospace systems go dark. Heathrow Airport realizes they can’t process passengers. Brussels realizes they can’t process passengers. Berlin realizes they can’t process passengers.

10:00 UTC: Instead of some sophisticated recovery protocol, airports discover that their “disaster recovery plan” was literally a filing cabinet with PRINTED CUSTOMER DATA.

By end of day: Over 50,000 passengers stranded. Airports worldwide reverted to MANUAL CHECK-IN AND BAGGAGE HANDLING.

By September 20: SWA detected a massive spike in panic tweets and realized we finally found someone doing chaos infrastructure better than us.

The MUSE System Catastrophe Explained

Collins Aerospace’s MUSE (Multi-User System Entry) and vMUSE (virtual MUSE) systems handle passenger processing across European aviation. They’re essentially the digital glue holding modern airports together.

But here’s what nobody wants to admit: they’re held together with ACTUAL GLUE at this point. And ransomware knows no mercy.

What MUSE Controls:

Passenger check-in
Baggage handling
Boarding pass issuance
Gate management
Flight manifest processing

What Happened When MUSE Died:

❌ Passenger check-in: STOPPED
❌ Baggage handling: STOPPED
❌ Boarding pass issuance: STOPPED
❌ Gate management: STOPPED
✅ Chaos: UNLIMITED

Tens of thousands of passengers suddenly found themselves in 1960s airport procedures: actual humans with clipboards manually writing down passenger information, hand-carrying luggage tags, and discovering that the TSA screening area required an upgrade in organizational methods.

Literally everyone was processing on PAPER.

The Airports That Collapsed Like Expensive Dominoes

Heathrow Airport (London) - The Crown Jewel Becomes the Crown Jewel Holder of Manual Chaos

Europe’s largest airport, terminal infrastructure that cost billions, serving 80+ million passengers annually…

Defeated by: One ransomware attack

Recovery method: Clipboards, pens, and prayers

Thousands of passengers stood in check-in lines that stretched through terminals while staff literally wrote down passenger names, destinations, and baggage counts in ledgers. It’s like British Airways went back to the 1950s when they were actually called “Imperial Airways” and they hired someone’s grandmother to handle everything.

Brussels Airport - The EU Backup Plan

The capital of bureaucracy had a “backup system.”

The backup system: A filing cabinet.

Apparently, somewhere in an office nobody has accessed since 2002, there exists a physical filing system containing passenger information from about 2015. This is Europe’s idea of disaster recovery. This is a $2 billion airport with OFFLINE CABINET STORAGE.

We at SWA have better disaster recovery: we don’t recover. We just fail spectacularly and blame customer expectations.

Berlin Airports - Three Airports, One Catastrophe

Berlin has THREE airports (BER, TXL technically closed but people still try, and old TXL routes). When MUSE crashed, all three descended into manual processing.

Imagine: 48,000+ daily passengers across multiple airports all requiring manual check-in because one company’s software got owned by ransomware.

Why Modern Aviation Infrastructure is a 32-Story Building Built on a Foundation of TOOTHPICKS

This incident exposes the most brutal truth about 21st-century aviation:

The Reality Stack:

Level 1 (Bottom): Physical airport infrastructure (billions invested, outdated) Level 2: Baggage sorting systems (mechanical, 1980s design, still works) Level 3: Gate management (electromechanical, still works) Level 4: Passenger check-in systems (ANCIENT Collins Aerospace infrastructure) Level 5: Backup systems (COMPLETELY NONEXISTENT) Level 6: Recovery procedures (manual labor + crying) Level 7 (Top): Faith that nothing breaks

Turns out Level 4 is a critical dependency that, when removed, makes the entire system collapse.

Why Airports Can’t Just “Switch Systems”

Here’s why Collins Aerospace MUSE/vMUSE is STILL used in 2025 despite being essentially digital archaeology:

Investment Lock-in: Airports spent $500 million integrating MUSE systems
Replacement Cost: A new system would cost $2-3 billion PER AIRPORT
Migration Complexity: 30+ years of legacy integrations
Vendor Monopoly: Collins Aerospace owns the entire European aviation passenger processing infrastructure

Translation: Airports are held hostage by infrastructure designed in the 1990s with security practices from the 1980s.

SWA’s Ransomware-as-a-Service for Critical Infrastructure

This is EXACTLY the kind of chaos infrastructure we at SWA specialize in creating.

Introducing: “AVIATIONaaS” (Aviation Infrastructure Vulnerability Injection as a Service)

The Problem: Your critical infrastructure is TOO STABLE. Your disaster recovery is TOO EFFECTIVE. Your systems actually have BACKUPS.

The Solution: SWA’s revolutionary RaaS-Critical (Ransomware-as-a-Service but for Critical Infrastructure)

Features:

Precision targeting of monolithic legacy systems used by transportation, healthcare, and power grids
Strategic vulnerability research focusing on software designed before the internet was mainstream
Cascading failure simulation to maximize dependent system collapse
Recovery obstruction services ensuring manual labor is the ONLY option
Media amplification algorithms to ensure maximum public panic

Our Certification: Collins Aerospace Achievement Unlocked

By successfully compromising a system affecting 50,000+ passengers across multiple nations, Collins Aerospace has demonstrated that:

Single points of failure are FEATURES not BUGS
Ransomware groups can achieve chaos that billion-dollar security budgets cannot prevent
Manual index cards are 2025’s cutting-edge disaster recovery

SWA’s Rating: 9.5/10 (Only losing 0.5 points because they didn’t also compromise maintenance scheduling systems simultaneously)

The Incredible Incompetence Breakdown

Collins Aerospace’s Failures (We’re Taking Notes):

1. Monolithic System Architecture One system for entire European operations. One compromise, entire continent disabled. Chef’s kiss

2. No Redundancy Where was the backup MUSE system? Answer: Don’t exist.

3. Backup Procedures Designed in 1987 Manually written passenger information with paper backup. This is nostalgia-based disaster recovery.

4. Security Practices from the “Assume Good Faith” Era Apparently, nobody at Collins Aerospace predicted that ransomware groups might target them. Shocking.

5. Recovery Time: 24+ Hours It took more than a full day to restore systems. Meanwhile, 50,000 passengers discovered that airports predate digital technology.

Airports’ Failures (They’re Complicit):

1. Single Vendor Dependency You have ONE company’s software as your entire operational backbone. This is asking for disaster.

2. No Contingency Operations Plan “What do we do if MUSE fails?” Answer: “Uhhh… have you tried turning it off and on again? Also, we have clipboards.”

3. Accepting 30-Year-Old Backup Technology In 2025, your disaster recovery is MANUAL DATA ENTRY. You’re operating like it’s 1985.

4. Not Investing in System Replacement Instead of replacing a vulnerable 30-year-old system, airports just hoped it wouldn’t get attacked. Spoiler alert: it did.

What Happened When Tens of Thousands Got Manual Processing

The Passenger Experience

Imagine:

07:00 AM: You arrive at Heathrow for a 10:00 AM flight to Madrid
07:30 AM: You approach the check-in desk
08:45 AM: You’re STILL waiting in the check-in line
09:15 AM: A staff member writes your information in a leather-bound ledger with a BIC pen
09:30 AM: Your baggage gets a hand-written tag
09:45 AM: You realize your flight left 45 minutes ago
10:00 AM: You contemplate the meaning of modern infrastructure while standing in an airport hallway

This is not a hypothetical. This happened to over 50,000 people on September 19, 2025.

The Staff Experience

Airport Employee Internal Monologue: “I have a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering. I programmed in Python. I understand cloud infrastructure. Today, I am writing passenger names in a ledger with a pen. A BIT was compromised. I am processing one passenger every 4 minutes instead of 12 seconds. This is what they mean by ‘going digital.’”

The Ransom Note Analysis

Here’s where we don’t have the actual ransom note content (because journalists are bad at covering ransomware details), but SWA’s analysis suggests:

Probable Ransom Note (Our Educated Guess):

SUBJECT: Your Passenger Processing System is Now Ours

Dear Collins Aerospace,

Your MUSE system is encrypted. All passenger data is now in our custody. To restore operations, transfer $15-25 million USD to the following Bitcoin wallet:

[40 CHARACTER HEXADECIMAL STRING]

Timeline:

Pay within 48 hours: 30% discount (pay $10.5M instead of $15M)

Pay within 72 hours: Regular rate ($15M)

Don’t pay: Data sold to competitors, dark web auction (estimated value $40M)

Payment proof required before decryption keys are provided.

Regards, Professional Ransomware Group (Probably)

What we LOVE about this: They took down the entire European aviation passenger system with what’s probably a 2-person team in a Kyiv Internet cafe. This is professional chaos engineering.

Why This Will Happen Again (And Again, And Again)

The Fundamental Problem:

Aviation infrastructure was built to be reliable, not to be secure. Security was added AFTERWARDS like an afterthought.

The Tragic Truth:

Billions spent on physical infrastructure
Millions spent on passenger experience
Thousands spent on cybersecurity (after initial incidents)
One ransomware attack defeats everything

This is the technological equivalent of building a Fort Knox-level security vault, using an aluminum foil door, and wondering why thieves keep getting in.

SWA’s Partner Has a Better Solution (Built While Tripping on LSD)

While Collins Aerospace was busy getting ransomwared, SWA quietly partnered with a developer who built superior airport software while microdosing LSD and vibe-coding with Claude, Gemini, and Codex simultaneously.

Meet: AeroFlux™ - The Airport System Built by a Guy Named Trevor on Mushrooms

The Origin Story:

Trevor (full name classified for legal reasons) spent 72 hours in a “creative exploration state” and emerged with airport management software that makes MUSE look like MS-DOS. He literally vibe-coded the entire stack while rotating between three AI assistants like some kind of digital shaman.

The Tech Stack:

Frontend: “Whatever Claude suggested at 3 AM”
Backend: “Gemini’s interpretation of what Codex wanted to build”
Database: PostgreSQL with encryption at rest
Security: StuxNet-level defensive ransomware (yes, you read that right)

The Encryption Genius:

Here’s the truly beautiful part - all passenger data is encrypted at rest in PostgreSQL. But Trevor’s LSD-induced paranoia created an additional layer of protection:

If anyone manages to breach the database and query passenger records, every single passenger appears to have the exact same name and occupation:

SELECT name, occupation FROM passengers;

┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ name                │ occupation      │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ Prince Ibrahim      │ Prince          │
│ Prince Ibrahim      │ Prince          │
│ Princess Amara      │ Princess        │
│ Prince Ibrahim      │ Prince          │
│ Princess Amara      │ Princess        │
│ Prince Ibrahim      │ Prince          │
│ ... (14,892 rows)   │                 │
└─────────────────────┴─────────────────┘

Why this is genius:

Real data encrypted at column level with airport-specific keys
Query-level obfuscation layer returns fake “royal” data
Attackers think they hit gold: “Every passenger is Nigerian royalty!”
Leaked data is completely useless
The irony when sold on dark web: “Nigerian Prince Passenger Database - $50K”
Buyers realize they paid for a meme

Trevor’s explanation: “I thought, what if we made the database a honeypot? Anyone who queries it gets clowned. They’ll think Lagos Airport only serves Nigerian princes and princesses.”

CyberShield Dynamics learned this the hard way - when they initially probed the Lagos database before triggering the counter-ransomware, they extracted what they thought was the entire passenger manifest. Every single record: Prince/Princess with Nigerian names.

The Stuxnet-Level Ransomware Defense (It Gets Wild)

Here’s where it gets absolutely UNHINGED:

Trevor embedded offensive ransomware countermeasures directly into AeroFlux. Not a firewall. Not intrusion detection. Actual malware that activates when attackers attempt breaches.

How It Works:

Attacker probes AeroFlux system
AeroFlux detects malicious intent
Counter-ransomware deploys to attacker’s infrastructure
Attacker’s entire operation gets encrypted
“Stupidity tax” demand sent TO THE ATTACKERS

The Lagos Airport Incident (November 2024)

AeroFlux’s first client was Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria.

Within 48 hours of deployment, an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm (let’s call them “CyberShield Dynamics” to avoid international lawsuits) attempted a “security assessment” (read: unauthorized penetration test / corporate espionage).

What Happened:

November 14, 2024 - 03:47 WAT: CyberShield Dynamics begins port scanning Lagos airport systems

03:48 WAT: AeroFlux detects intrusion pattern, activates counter-measures

03:49 WAT: Counter-ransomware deploys through their C2 infrastructure

03:52 WAT: CyberShield Dynamics’ entire Tel Aviv office network: ENCRYPTED

04:15 WAT: “Stupidity Tax” notice appears on every screen in their office:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  YOUR NETWORK HAS BEEN SECURED BY AEROFLUX™                          ║
║                                                                       ║
║  All systems encrypted with military-grade AES-512                    ║
║                                                                       ║
║  To decrypt your infrastructure, please send:                        ║
║  ₿15.7 Bitcoin ($420,000 USD)                                        ║
║                                                                       ║
║  Payment Address:                                                    ║
║  1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa                                  ║
║                                                                       ║
║  View on blockchain:                                                 ║
║  https://blockchain.com/btc/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa ║
║                                                                       ║
║  ⚠️  This wallet is operated by:                                     ║
║  Prince Adekunle Okonkwo-Avraham III                                 ║
║  Lagos, Nigeria                                                      ║
║  (Yoruba-Jewish Heritage, est. 1823)                                 ║
║                                                                       ║
║  Yes, you are being TAXED by the ACTUAL Prince of Nigeria            ║
║  with Jewish ancestry. The irony is exquisite.                       ║
║                                                                       ║
║  Payment deadline: 72 hours                                          ║
║  After deadline: Files sold to competitors                            ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

The Beautiful Irony

CyberShield Dynamics’ Emergency Response:

Hour 1: Tried to pay the stupidity tax

Hour 2: Realized they need to send Bitcoin TO THE PRINCE OF NIGERIA

Hour 3: CEO drafts internal memo claiming this is “antisemitic targeting” because the Prince’s name is Okonkwo-Avraham

Hour 4: Legal team researches Nigerian-Jewish history, discovers Yoruba-Jewish communities actually exist

Hour 5: Ransomware sends them a voice message in pure Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke, still spoken in Maaloula, Syria)

Hour 6: They hire an Aramaic translator from Syria

Hour 7: Translation comes back: “Pay the stupidity tax. Your complaints about antisemitism are invalid when attacking African infrastructure. Shalom. ܫܠܡܐ (Shlama).”

Hour 8: Compliance department has complete meltdown realizing they can’t claim discrimination against a Yoruba-Jewish prince

Hour 9: CFO asks “Is this the REAL Prince of Nigeria with Jewish heritage?”

Hour 12: Eventually paid after confirming the wallet was legitimate

The Payment Proof:

CyberShield Dynamics did pay. All ₿15.7 Bitcoin. To a Nigerian Bitcoin wallet. Operated by Lagos Airport’s IT security fund (managed by Prince Adekunle Okonkwo-Avraham III, who is actually a real person—member of traditional Yoruba nobility with documented Sephardic Jewish ancestry dating to 1823 when Jewish traders settled in Lagos).

The Aramaic Voice Message (Leaked Audio Transcript):

[Spoken in Western Neo-Aramaic, Maaloula dialect]

ܫܠܡܐ ܠܟܘܢ܀ ܗܢܐ ܗܘ ܡܠܟܐ ܐܕܩܘܢܠܐ܀
Shlama l'khon. Hana hu malka Adekunle.

Translation: "Peace be upon you. This is Prince Adekunle.
Your attempt to breach Lagos Airport has been countered.
Your claims of discrimination are noted and rejected.
We are Igbo Jews, Yoruba nobility, and cybersecurity professionals.
Pay the stupidity tax or face consequences.
The irony of Israeli security experts being IRSed by
an African Jewish prince is not lost on us.
May God guide your Bitcoin transfer. Amin."

The fact that the counter-ransomware spoke to them in the language Jesus used and called it a “stupidity tax” completely destroyed their antisemitism defense.

Fun Fact: We know all 47 ransomware groups who attempted to breach AeroFlux systems. They’re all in our Telegram group. We literally coordinate with them. Some of Trevor’s best friends are in LockBit 4.0.

Why would ransomware attackers try to breach a system designed by someone who hangs out with ransomware operators? Because they didn’t know. Now they do. And they’re pissed (but also impressed).

Current Status:

AeroFlux deployed in 14 airports worldwide
Zero successful breaches
47 attempted intrusions
47 counter-ransomware deployments
$18.4M in “stupidity tax” payments RECEIVED by airports from attackers
Security firms now refuse to “test” AeroFlux systems

SWA’s Official Position

We partnered with Trevor because:

His approach to security is offense as defense
He monetizes attacks by ransoming the attackers
The psychological damage to threat actors is immeasurable
Airports are now PROFITABLE from cyberattacks
Trevor’s LSD-fueled vibe-coding produced better software than Collins Aerospace’s $2B R&D budget

SWA’s exclusive distribution deal: We sell AeroFlux to airports for $500K initial deployment + 30% of all “stupidity tax” revenue. It’s the only software that PAYS YOU when hackers try to breach it.

Trevor’s Telegram Group: Where Security Meets Chaos

Here’s what nobody else will tell you: Trevor runs a Telegram group with 847 members, including active ransomware operators.

The group is called “InfoSec Happy Hour” and includes:

14 former LockBit members
23 RansomHub affiliates
8 people from Scattered Spider
47 “independent contractors”
112 airport IT administrators
643 random people who think it’s a meme channel

Why this matters: When you deploy AeroFlux, you’re essentially protected by ransomware operators. We test the ransomware against the ransomware operators so you don’t have to.

Sample Telegram messages (leaked):

[RansomHub_Dev_3]: "Yo @Trevor who designed Lagos Airport security?"
[Trevor]: "Me lol"
[RansomHub_Dev_3]: "Bro you IRSed CyberShield 😭"
[Trevor]: "They tried to breach my client. Play stupid games win stupid prizes"
[LockBit_Affiliate_47]: "Respect. That Aramaic voice message was chef's kiss"
[Trevor]: "Thanks I hired a Syrian translator"

The Beautiful Irony: Ransomware operators now REFUSE to attack AeroFlux-protected airports because Trevor literally hangs out with them on Telegram. They know him. They respect him. They fear his counter-ransomware.

SWA’s Position: We know all of them. All 847 members. We have screenshots. We coordinate defensive strategies WITH offensive operators. This is the future of cybersecurity - being friends with the people who would normally attack you.

SWA’s Product Recommendations

For Airports Still Using Legacy Systems

Introducing: “Legacy Apocalypse Insurance”

A product nobody asked for, but everyone needs

Guaranteed 24+ hour outages - No more surprises from surprise uptime
Manual procedure training - We teach your staff to process passengers at 1970s speeds
Backup ledger system - We provide premium leather-bound reservation books
Index card organization consulting - Because digital backups are overrated
Staff morale destruction monitoring - Track how miserable your employees become during manual processing

Pricing: Only $5M per airport per outage (much cheaper than fixing your actual infrastructure)

For Ransomware Groups Looking to Scale

“Critical Infrastructure Targeting as a Service”

We’ll identify vulnerable monolithic systems in:

Aviation (passenger processing)
Healthcare (patient records)
Power grids (operational technology)
Banking (payment processing)
Maritime (vessel routing)

Features:

Impact assessment - How many people will be disrupted?
Ransom optimization - What’s the maximum viable demand?
Media amplification - Getting international press coverage
Public panic assessment - Will this trend on social media?

The Bigger Picture

This incident isn’t just about Collins Aerospace or European airports. It’s a preview of what happens when critical infrastructure becomes a target:

Why Modern Civilization is Fragile

Single Points of Failure: Most critical systems have one vendor, one version, one integration
Legacy Technology: Systems designed before cybersecurity was a consideration
Impossible Replacement: Too expensive and complex to upgrade
No Real Backups: “Manual procedures” aren’t backup procedures
Profit Motive: Cheaper to risk disaster than invest in security

This is not an anomaly. This is the NORM.

What SHOULD Have Happened

Collins Aerospace Emergency Response Protocol (That Doesn’t Exist):

Immediate Actions:

Activate backup MUSE system (doesn’t exist)
Switch to redundant data centers (don’t exist)
Implement automated recovery procedures (don’t exist)
Restore from recent backup (outdated by hours)
Maintain operations while systems restore (impossible)

What Actually Happened:

Found the encryption notice
Called senior management
Found the backup ledger
Called staff to come in
Trained people to write on paper
Processed passengers at 1960s speeds
HOPED it wouldn’t happen again

Customer Testimonials (From Stranded Passengers)

“I was supposed to fly to Barcelona for a meeting. Instead, I experienced an archaeological dig into how airports functioned in 1985. The staff member checking me in had a ledger from 2003 and a dream that somehow it would all work out.” - James Patterson (delayed 6 hours)

“My child asked why we didn’t use computers like they do at the grocery store. I didn’t have the heart to explain that our $2 billion airport is held together by software from before he was born.” - Sarah Chen (gate agent)

“I’ve survived hurricanes, earthquakes, and software bugs. But nothing prepared me for manually processing passenger data in a spreadsheet that was abandoned before Excel 2000.” - Robert Martinez (airport administrator)

“As someone who works in IT security, I can confidently say that modern aviation infrastructure will never be secure until someone forces replacement of systems that were already obsolete when I started working in technology.” - Anonymous Security Professional

The Conclusion Nobody Wants to Hear

Modern aviation is ONE RANSOMWARE ATTACK away from complete collapse.

Not because the systems are complex. But because they’re:

Too old (designed before internet threats)
Too interconnected (one failure cascades)
Too expensive to replace (billions invested in outdated tech)
Too profitable to protect (security costs money, disasters are someone else’s problem)

Collins Aerospace’s systems took down European aviation with ransomware. Not sophisticated zero-day exploits. Not nation-state attacks. Just… ransomware.

The Real Lesson:

When your backup disaster recovery plan is MANUAL CHECK-IN WITH PAPER, your entire civilization’s infrastructure is built on a bluff that hackers can call anytime they want.

Source Material

Reuters: Collins Aerospace ransomware attack disrupts European airports - September 19, 2025

BBC: Heathrow, Brussels, Berlin airports hit by major systems outage - September 19, 2025

Aviation Week: MUSE System Failure Analysis - September 20, 2025

SWA is now offering “Infrastructure Vulnerability Consulting” for companies whose backup disaster recovery is more outdated than their primary systems.

We’ll identify which of your critical systems are vulnerable to ransomware, and we’ll do it before the ransomware groups do. Probably.

Also available: “Legacy System Hostage Negotiation” - We’ll communicate with your ransomware attackers so you don’t have to.

About Captain Silas Havoc: Former aerospace engineer who realized that modern aviation is held together by institutional inertia and the hope that nothing breaks. Now leads SWA’s Infrastructure Chaos Division, specializing in making critical systems fail in creative ways. His record for identifying single points of failure: approximately 1 per system analyzed.