Airport Cyberthreats

 

Cyberthreats originate from people or organizations that aim to disrupt travel and possibly cause injury or harm to those traveling. The threat begins with perpetrators locating a point of weakness in airport security. Cyberattacks can even be conducted from home, making it difficult to track and eliminate the source of the threat. Many airports are vulnerable to cyberattacks, especially airports that are not up to date on technology or airports in smaller, less economically stable countries. Most of the airport security is at the TSA line, and there are not security measures outside of the airport to protect it from attacks from the outside. Cyber attacks involving data breaches lead to at the very least, delays to flights and inconvenienced travelers, to more chaotic situations like compromised accounts of travelers and stolen identities. (Willemsen et al., 2018).

Specific layers of TSA security that can mitigate cyber threats are intelligence and behavior detection. Intelligence related to the IT department can mitigate the threat by actively preventing cyberattacks from occurring and doing internal audits on local computer devices to find weaknesses and/or breaches of security. IT intelligence can serve as a wall to prevent hackers from breaching data. Another area of TSA security that can help to prevent cyber attacks is behavior detection (TSA, 2017). Cyber attacks often rely on perpetrators going to the airport to attempt to access the airport’s cloud and local computer networks. Behavior detection could watch for suspicious behavior such as individuals loitering at the airport and not traveling and individuals who are trying to access restricted areas. Behavior detection can be used to confront specific individuals who show signs of potential security breach and determine if further investigation is warranted. Currently, intelligence and behavior detection are mitigation strategies being used against low level, easy-to-detect threats (Willemsen et al., 2018).

Sources that are not connected to the network, such as the airport’s cloud holds confidential data. These sources are more vulnerable and easily compromised. A recommendation to improve security would be for airlines to add an extra layer of defense by allowing the airport to provide a wider net of defense, since airlines all use their own third-party defense. This could add as an extra layer of protection, not solely rely on third party defense (Willemsen, et al., 2018).

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References

Inside Look: TSA Layers of Security | Transportation Security Administration. (2017, August 1).  Transportation Security Administration. https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2017/08/01/inside-look-tsa-layers-security

Willemsen, B., & Cadee, M. (2018). Extending the airport boundary: Connecting physical security and    cybersecurity. Journal of Airport Management, 12(3), 236–247.