Customs across US airports shut down by computer virus
A computer virus shut down the U.S. Customs computer system for several hours Thursday which are used to process international flight arriving passengers.
Airports affected included those in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Laredo, Texas, reported Homeland Security, leaving long lines of frustrated travelers.
Miami International Airport experienced the worst delays with up to 2,000 people delayed in clearing immigration.
New York airports’ customs officials manually processed passengers during the shutdown. Los Angeles was able to activate backup systems to process arriving passengers.
While Homeland Security declined to discuss details on the origin of the virus, it is believed it is the same computer worm which on Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.
Charles Kao
Have your say Cancel reply
Subscribe/Login to Travel Mole Newsletter
Travel Mole Newsletter is a subscriber only travel trade news publication. If you are receiving this message, simply enter your email address to sign in or register if you are not. In order to display the B2B travel content that meets your business needs, we need to know who are and what are your business needs. ITR is free to our subscribers.
































Global tourism exceeds 1.5 billion travelers announces UN-Tourism
Qatar Airways offers reduced timetable to over 60 destinations
WTTC global tourism reached record economic impact of 11 trillion in 2025
Marginal increase for New York City tourism in 2025
Hands In, UATP join forces for airline multi-card payments