Cyberattack at Tulsa International Airport raises concerns for Will Rogers in OKC

A ransomware-linked data breach at Tulsa International Airport is raising concerns for airports across the state. “They’re targeting critical infrastructure, major corporations, just anywhere they can get in,” said Ron Vaughn, EMSCO solutions specialist and cybersecurity expert. The attack was by Qilin, a Russian-speaking cybercriminal syndicate, one of the most prolific ransomware operators in the world, with over 1,000 victims in 2025. Hackers were able to breach the airport’s business network and access data. “Then they published some of that data onto a cybercrime website for proof of concept and then were holding them for ransom,” said Vaughn. The stolen data included sensitive financial, administrative, and personal data for employees and partners. “All kinds of data that they can use and sell for somebody else to use, you know, years later, if not weeks or months later,” said Vaughn. Vaughn says the stolen data could fuel identity theft and targeted scams. The good news, airport operations and travel were not affected. “The lights for the runway, baggage claim, facing screens telling you what arrivals and departures, that sort of thing, so they were segmented from that standpoint,” said Vaughn. The big question now is could the same thing happen in Oklahoma City at Will Rogers International Airport? Vaughn says the answer is yes. “A hack is not necessarily if, it’s more like a when,” said Vaughn. Vaughn says Will Rogers International Airport is more complex than Tulsa with more employees, passengers and deeper integration with the city government systems. “So, they could get spread really thin if things were going wrong in multiple places at the same time,” said Vaughn. News 4 reached out to Will Rogers International Airport to see what safeguards are in place, they were not available for a statement, but sent the following statement. “TSA is currently working with airports locally and nationally to put systems in place to prevent cybersecurity attacks. OKC Airport has been working hard to secure our networks and keep up with changes in the IT industry,” said Jeff Mulder, director of airports. While airports need to be prepared, Vaughn says so can travellers. He encourages you to know where your important data is on your devices and use multifactor authentication to assess it. You should also never enter your personal information if you are using public Wi-Fi, instead use a VPN.