US still probing flight ground stop, cyberattack not ruled out

WASHINGTON: US Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin on Friday said there was no indication the country was under threat after a ground stop was issued at airports nationwide.

But Mullin told reporters at the White House after meeting President Donald Trump that authorities were still investigating – and did not rule out a possible cyberattack.

"There was no indication, as of yet, that this was a nefarious attack against us, it's just a telecommunication outage, as of right now," Mullin said.

"This isn't another 9/11. I just can't repeat that enough."

But asked if a cyberattack could eventually be found to be responsible, Mullin said officials were "not ruling out anything at this point."

The homeland security chief said however that he did not believe the air traffic stop was linked to a huge global Microsoft outage that affected public services around the world.

"I don't see any reason to connect those two at all. Those are separate issues," Mullin said.

Mullin added that "every flight has been accounted for" and said incoming international flights would be handled on a "case by case basis."

But he said the situation could "take some time" to be fixed. "This isn't going to just be resolved and turned around within the hour," he added.--AFP