The transport sector can very well be called the backbone of global commerce, however, considering this, it is never thought to be the most innovative sector.
The fact remains that when people think about transport, they obviously have a picture of highways as old as 75 years, aging train stations, and also those slow-moving giants in the sea moving cargo. But the advent of digitalization has gone on to seep into every corner of the sector, all thanks to the growing connectivity levels helped by new forms of communication such as advanced IoT as well as networks and, of course, the Intelligent Transport System- ITS which are kind of achieving new efficiencies while at the same time also leveling up the service benchmarks.
The efficiency along with the increased capabilities of this new technology also come with prominently heightened cyber risks. As the sector goes on to embrace digital transformation, pushed by the proliferation of IoT as well as IIoT devices, the attack surface when it comes to the companies’ operational assets increases, and so hence goes on to challenge what identifying and understanding devices are out there and not just safeguarding them.
The challenge lies in the loose patchwork of the digitalized systems that are installed sans any sort of attention when it comes to cybersecurity. Most often, functionality as well as availability happen to be prioritized before everything else when the old mechanical systems happen to be replaced by the newer digitalized options. The outcomes often happen to be clusters of digitalized devices that do not play well with others and are also not future-proofed to the point that they overcome new challenges.
Most of such kinds of new digitalized devices make use of stripped-down operating systems that happen to have a dearth of processing that’s required to roll out more advanced forms of tracking as well as detection, and the devices and also the networks that they go ahead and communicate on do not have a proper authentication and encryption. There are more issues that occur when trying to maintain proper firmware updates or even password policies.
One of the recent instances that highlights all this is from Poland. Apparently, in August 2023, over 20 trains in Poland that carried freight as well as passengers went on a halt across the country due to saboteurs who used a simple radio stop command through the radio frequency so as to trigger the emergency stop function in the train.
Although the consequences were non-disastrous, the gap in encryption as well as the simplicity of this attack should make all the transportation companies contemplate the gaps in security in their own networks.
The national transportation agency of Poland says they are planning to upgrade the country’s railway systems so as to make use of the more encrypted GSM cellular radios by 2025 due to this incident, however, until then, their railways are indeed going to remain a potential target for such kinds of attacks.
As one of the critical infrastructures, trains as well as the logistical fleets happen to be often the high-value targets when it comes to the cyber criminals, cyber terrorists along with the state-sponsored actors and consequences of an attack can be very damaging. As the new threats go on to emerge, operators have to make sure that they happen to be building the desired level of cyber resiliency in order to detect as well as give a response to the attacks.
Notably, that the transportation companies cannot afford to be lying off guard due to the security risks that happen to come from the digitalization of networks, being not aware of the lacunae in terms of the communication capabilities of such digitalized devices, and also not being able to patch the vulnerabilities in case they are exposed.
It is well to be noted that the adoption of security solutions that integrate IT, OT, as well as IoT happens to be essential when it comes to achieving an overall view of assets within the transport systems since they automate consistent tracking as well as guarding against vulnerabilities, anomalies, and threats. One needs to look for the ones that go on to offer solutions that are purpose-built for industrial and IoT environments and happen to be a comprehensive suite of tools in terms of cataloging assets, ongoing tracking, and a threat response that’s robust.
Significantly, the final objective of a cybersecurity strategy happens to be to make sure that operations get protected as much as possible from cyber threats and are also resilient in case the attack has already taken place. It is hence very important that the companies take the required steps so as to gain overall and consistent visibility when it comes to their assets, and of course, potential vulnerabilities also get taken care of.
Getting clear visibility within the network operations as well as communications goes on to offer a baseline in terms of enhancements and also a way for important operators to go ahead and gauge holistically how their environment may get affected due to a range of scenarios, and right from there, the operators must go on to turn their focus on planning for the incident.
The fact is that planning for an incident happens to be paramount, and all the response plans need certain aspects so as to help organizations recover rapidly and also go on to prepare for future incidents. Some significant pieces are establishing roles as well as responsibilities, emergency plans, dictating policies concerning backups, crisis communications, and finally making sure that a precise post-incident forensic investigation gets conducted for consistent improvement as well as planning.
The point is that when a cyber-attack strikes any system, collab between the teams happens to be of utmost priority due to a successful restart and, at the same time, minimizing downtime.
The probable inoperability of smart devices as well as networks of airports, power grids, and even cellular networks happen to have some major consequences, and they all require to be at the highest levels of readiness.
The fact is that it is indeed quite a challenge to forecast the attack that’s going to come next, and hence, embracing the right solutions is important to gain asset visibility and also enhance the cyber security framework as far as the critical transportation infrastructure is concerned.
The fact is that with apt measures in place, transport operators can go on to detect as well as respond to the threats in a more effective way, thereby decreasing the cyber-attack impact on their systems and thereby aiding them to take out the most from the digital transformation programs.
