The FAA is concerned about cybersecurity and airline industry vulnerability to hackers, mirroring concerns about medical device susceptibility to hacking and random EMI interference, as I reported earlier.
The FAA concerns follow a reported cyberattack on flight-planning computers at Warsaw Chopin Airport, according to Andy Pasztor in the Wall Street Journal. Officials said safety was not affected, but several flights were cancelled or delayed for several hours.
The FAA is hoping to identify the most important risk areas. Pasztor quotes Jens Hennig, cochairman of the FAA panel investigating cybersecurity, as saying, “The industry needs a set of graduated requirements.”
In addition, Pasztor reports, Boeing is paying red hat testers to try to hack onboard software, although Mike Sinnett, VP for product development for commercial aircraft at Boeing, tells Pasztor that flight-critical software is not susceptible to external hacking.
FAA administrator Michael Huerta is looking to facilitate the sharing of details of threats, potential incidents, and mitigations worldwide. Pasztor quotes him as saying, “One of the things that is absolutely critical is to have very robust mechanisms for information sharing.”
