(UPDATE: Oct. 15 at 11:44 am): The City of Kelowna has provided some more details about the hacking of airport systems on Tuesday.
It said the hijacking of the terminal's flight information screens and PA system was thwarted "within a matter of minutes."
"All affected systems were isolated and verified before being restored late last night," the City said in a statement.
"The cyber security incident was limited to a cloud-based third party software provider. Airport systems are segregated to protect cyber security incidents from migrating from one network to another."
The City added that a threat assessment was carried out by the RCMP and Transport Canada, with the hacker's "messaging" – a hodgepodge of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas and jihadist sentiment – "not deemed to be a direct threat towards the travelling public."
"To analyze the root cause, we are continuing to work with Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and Transport Canada," the City said.
X is yet to respond to NowMedia in the matter of the user who claimed responsibility for the hack.
That account is still posting and reposting today, with the most recent posts suggesting the user thinks Kelowna is in the US.
The news, meanwhile, has gone international, with American broadcaster CNN covering the incident. Its article also highlighted a similar hack in Pennsylvania.
(Original story: Oct. 15 at 6 am): Flight information screens and the PA system at Kelowna International Airport were commandeered by an anti-Israel hacker on Tuesday.
Instead of departure and arrival times, passengers in the terminal were shown an image claiming “Hamas won the war” and “Israel lost,” in reference to the conflict between Israel and the Islamist terror group.
It said: “You are a pig, Donald Trump” and featured images of two prominent leaders of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, both of whom were killed by Israel over their roles in the October 7 massacre.
Amerikan Havalimanlarına Siber Akın!
— Akıncı Mecra (@akincimecra) October 15, 2025
Mütarrif kod Siber Akıncı, “Ebu Ubeyde'nin Cellatları” adıyla Harrisburg, Kelowna, Victoria ve Rogue Valley Medford havaalanlarının ses/görüntü sistemlerine siber saldırı düzenledi. Sistemlerden Kassam marşı ve Ebu Ubeydenin sesi yayınlandı. pic.twitter.com/mu9OL3Jtow
The image also included a jihadist flag, which is associated with various Islamic terror groups across the world, and men concealing their faces with keffiyehs.
On the PA system, meanwhile, the hacker broadcast an angry speech in Arabic referring to the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas unit that invaded Israel two years ago and helped murder more than a thousand people, starting a devastating war that raged until this month.
The hacker also broadcast a text-to-speech screed via the PA system, this one in English, insulting Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu and crediting “Siberislam” for the breach.
geliyoruz komutan ebu ubeyde için geliyoruz. https://t.co/tCDmPSDM6G
— Seriyyetü’l-Kassam (@siberislam) October 15, 2025
The X account associated with that username remains active. Its recent tweets have celebrated the crime – alongside similar ones around the world – and credited a “Turkish hacker.”
The City of Kelowna, which runs the airport, said in a statement last night that staff “successfully removed the unauthorized messaging.”
It added: “Earlier today, a third party gained access to the flight information display screens and the public address (PA) system in the terminal building at Kelowna International Airport (YLW).”
The statement also said some flights had been delayed, but as of Wednesday morning all flights are listed as on time.
NowMedia has requested more information about the hacker's account from X.
