When Europe’s busiest airports ground to a halt over the weekend, what are the lessons that UK SME’s can learn from this attack
Travellers across Europe faced chaos this weekend as a coordinated cyber-attack on Friday, 19th September, caused disruption at a number of major airports to their knees.
This wasn’t just another headline about big business being targeted (following the recent cyber incidents faced by Marks and Spencer and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)), it is another reminder for every UK business about the hidden vulnerabilities lurking in their operations and supply chains.
The Cyber Attack That Stopped Europe
Friday’s attack reportedly targeted Collins Aerospace’s MUSE software system, the digital backbone of check-in and boarding systems across multiple airports worldwide.
Within hours, automated systems went dark, forcing staff to resort to time-consuming manual procedures. Brussels Airport was seemingly hit hardest, with authorities cancelling 50% of morning flights on Saturday.
What makes this attack particularly concerning isn’t its sophistication – it exploited the same vulnerabilities in businesses of every size.
The uncomfortable truth, specifically for smaller UK businesses, is that no business is flying under the radar. We are in the crosshairs of cyber criminals who are continually looking to target businesses and supply chains.
Recent data reveals that:
- 43% of cyber attacks specifically target smaller businesses (under £10m revenue)
- Small businesses take an average of 206 days to detect a breach (compared to 197 days for larger companies)
- 82% of small business cyber attacks are financially motivated
- 37% of small UK businesses have no cyber incident response plan
The reason? Cybercriminals see smaller businesses as the sweet spot in the supply chain, the perfect target! They are valuable enough as a target to yield significant ransoms, typically demanding between £25k-£150k, and usually don’t invest in the same robust security measures that larger businesses have.
Third-Party Dependencies: Your Hidden Achilles Heel
UK SMEs share many of the same vulnerabilities as the airports that are attacked over the weekends. Just as airports relied on Collins Aerospace’s systems, many businesses will likely depend on some of the following:
- Accounting software (Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent) – which, if compromised, means a business could lose financial visibility
- Payment processing (Stripe, SumUp, iZettle) – downtime to these tools could mean no sales
- E-commerce platforms (Shopify, Squarespace, Wix) – what if your entire storefront disappears?
- Cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive) – imagine all your documents, orders or backup files become inaccessible?
- Communication tools (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) – losing the ability to communicate could see any business grind to a halt!
Losing access to any of these systems, for even 24 hours, could be catastrophic; the impact could be immediate and often a business will have no control over the timeline for resolution.
The Social Engineering Threat
This weekend, the aviation industry was warned that cybercriminals don’t need complex code to break in. Instead, they simply call help desks and convince staff to give them access.
For many smaller businesses, this threat is magnified as often they have no formal cyber training in place, it’s not unusual for a single person to have admin access to everything and processes not sophisticated enough to reduce the risks (dual controls for payments etc).
A Manchester-based recruitment firm with 15 employees lost £180,000 in 2024 when criminals called pretending to be from their bank, convincing the Finance Manager to authorise a “security update” that gave them access to the business account.
This wasn’t a sophisticated hack – it was a simple phone call that exploited their trust and lack of verification procedures.
Operational Disruption = Business Death
While airports could implement costly manual workarounds, most small businesses don’t have this luxury. What if:
- An online store goes offline during peak sales period
- If the accounting system becomes inaccessible meaning a business cannot process invoices or pay suppliers
- Payment gateways fails and customers can’t complete purchases
- Email systems go down and a business cannot communicate with their customers or suppliers
All of these scenarios could be catastrophic for any business; however the sad truth is that for many there is no Plan B, and the worrying risk is that customers simply go to another competitor.
A Cotswolds-based craft brewery (£3.2m turnover) lost their entire customer database and online ordering system in a ransomware attack. With 60% of sales coming through their website, they lost £18,000 in revenue during the four-day downtime and spent £45,000 on recovery costs. They had no cyber insurance and no incident response plan!
A combination that nearly forced them to close permanently.
The Financial Reality a Business Cannot Afford to Ignore!
The average cyber incident for a UK SME costs £230,000, a figure that would bankrupt most small businesses. Yet only 10-15% of SMEs have cyber insurance protection.
Cyber insurance isn’t just about paying for “damage” after an attack. Many cyber insurers support businesses with preventing attacks from succeeding in the first place.
It is now commonplace for cyber insurance products to provide customers with access to tools and training as part of the policy which can include:
- Real-time vulnerability scanning, including ongoing monitoring for security weaknesses to provide recommendations for areas of improvement.
- Free staff training programs and on-demand cybersecurity education materials including best practice guidance tailored to your industry sector
- Access to advanced security platforms such as Ethical hacking assessments to identify vulnerabilities
Cyber insurance can give your business access to tools that can help protect your business, to mitigate an attack similar to this weekend’s airport incident, which could include:
- 24/7 access to Incident response experts
- Ready-made crisis management protocols
- Advisors that can help coordinate with law enforcement and regulatory bodies
- IT forensics to identify and contain the breach and support with system restoration.
- Reputation management and PR assistance
In addition to the costs of dealing with the financial impact of such and attack.
Cyber Insurance
Having the right cyber insurance in place could be the difference between survival and closure. If a major international airport with unlimited resources can be brought to its knees by a cyber-attack then what chance does a small business have without proper protection in place?
At Jensten we have Cyber Insurance Specialists who can help you understand your businesses unique risks and help choose the right cyber insurance product for your needs, don’t wait for your business to become the next statistic!
Our Technology, Media and Cyber Team at Jensten understands the unique challenges facing UK businesses and we’ve helped hundreds of small businesses protect themselves adequately, affordably and effectively through our team’s expertise.
Sources:
Government Sources:
- UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024 & 2025 (DSIT/Home Office)
Industry Research:
- Accenture Cost of Cybercrime Study – 43% of attacks target small businesses
- Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report – comprehensive attack statistics
- Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report – UK-specific small business data
Cyber attack:
- Multiple news sources for the September 20, 2025 airport cyber attack
- Collins Aerospace/RTX Corporation official statements
