Page 149 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

Airports, Bridges, and Beltways

Cyber and Physical Transportation in the Transportation Industry

By Alan Cunningham, Journalist, Truth Be Told

Like with most other areas of business, government, public safety/service, and society, the transportation
system of the U.S. faces a wealth of challenges and threats. For clarity, the transportation sector
encompasses “a category of companies that provide services to move people or goods, as well as
transportation infrastructure…[consisting] of several industries including air freight and logistics, airlines,
marine, road and rail, and transportation infrastructure” while being further broken “down into the sub-
industries air freight and logistics, airlines, marine, railroads, trucking, airport services, highways and
rail tracks, and marine ports and services”.

From natural disasters to supply chain issues, trucking and transportation allows the United States to
function; without the ability to gain food, water, or other essential supplies, the society of a given county,
state, region, or even potentially the nation could crumble and be unable to function.

The most glaring of these threats to the transportation industry comes from cyberspace, with foreign
intelligence services, terrorist groups, and individual hackers being able to potentially, "[collect] private
financial, personal and health information of their employees, as well as account numbers and other
protected information of clients...[render Electronic Logging Devices] inoperable by a virus, ransomware
or other hacking event [resulting in lost revenue and people being unable to get to their destination]",
hack into a company's computer systems to cause a companywide failure resulting in delays, spoilt
perishables, or a shutdown of all computer systems followed by a demand for money (a very real threat
to any company). The failures of these systems would result in very serious problems for the
transportation industry and, being that truckers are the backbone of the vast majority of businesses in
the United States, the halting of their systems would be incredibly detrimental to the overall conduct of
business in the country.

From a cybersecurity standpoint, there are naturally the basic suggestions of better training, more aware
employees, and doing routine security checks are imperative, however, this is from a company
standpoint. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) can adequately help in these matters too, by
providing better security systems for vehicles to prevent against vehicle hackings, holding joint private
industry-business/government discussions on cyber threats and security, and better improving the
communications systems of vehicles so they are not open to attack. The Department of Homeland
Security too can and must provide training and advice to the private sector in that transportation not only
includes land, but also sea and air travel, which, if corrupted, would severely incapacitate Americans
ability to travel and the import and export of essential goods and services.

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