Cyber Security and the Growing Threat to Our Airliners

     The threat that I have chosen this week that has really only become an issue in the past 10 years or so is definitely Cyber Security. In the past 10 years the advancements to technology have been profound. Artificial Intelligence and hacking are two threats that have been plaguing the best minds in the world to come up with an idea on how to mitigate the possibility of an airliner and its automated systems being hacked and weaponised, as well as TSA being hacked to allow passengers that could potentially be a threat.  In fact, this has become so profound that there has been House Hearings and hearings to Congress to address the issue and come up with resolutions through TSA and other entities to mitigate this threat. "As devices, aircraft, and systems become more interconnected, cybersecurity will increasingly play a larger role in aviation security (Ratcliffe, 2018)." 

    There are many ways to use our our technology against us.  There is the obvious way that you could weaponize an aircraft, but there are many other ways as well, if you look deeper than what's on the surface. Take this weeks gas crisis, much of the unrest in the southeast in relation to the unavailability of gas is due to hacking by terrorists.  I personally have already seen it effect the aviation industry because some flights are being cancelled at Charlotte Airport because they are out of fuel.   



    To mitigate this,TSA released its Cybersecurity Roadmap, which will help prioritize cybersecurity measures within TSA and across the transportation industry (Pekoske, 2018). This roadmap would more than likely apply to the intelligence layer of security, as the more intel you have, the stronger your ability is to understand where the cyber threats will come from, as well as who is most likely to make them occur.  

    My recommendation would be to get ahead of this growing threat by adding more funding, as well as more personnel on the task of mitigating cyber threats to aviation and the transportation industry.  We need the greatest minds in America on this, as I believe that this is the biggest threat to the aviation industry, period. Globally, our greatest achievement in the past 20 years could very well be the advancement of technology.  However, it is also proving to be our greatest weakness. 

 


References:


Pekoske, D. (2018, December 4). TSA releases Cybersecurity Roadmap. TSA releases Cybersecurity Roadmap | Transportation Security Administration. https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2018/12/04/tsa-releases-cybersecurity-roadmap.

Ratcliffe, J. (2018, September 6). - UNDERSTANDING THE CYBERSECURITY OF AMERICA'S AVIATION SECTOR. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg34446/html/CHRG-115hhrg34446.htm.

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