Immunizing Civil Aviation Infrastructure to Cyber Threats
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עברית (Hebrew)
Cyber attacks on Israeli websites during “Protective Edge” proved that not only states but also terrorist organizations have discovered the new war front.
Even before recent events, experts said that the flight supervision systems in Israel need to be immunized as soon as possible from a large cyber attack.
Horror story-two aircraft are approaching for landing. The tower instructs how pilots how high to stay. Then suddenly one of the pilots receives instructions to change his height, causing him to collide with the second plane.
In recent days say sources familiar with this subject, suggest that cyber-based terrorist acts on civil aviation is “likely.”
Reality is stranger than fiction. As we’ve seen in TV shows like 24, planes collide over the U.S. because of terrorists taking remote control of the flight inspection systems. An assessment was made in recent days that U.S. flight control systems allows such an attack in which terrorists can take over the flight control systems and cause chaos and serious accidents.
Experts estimates are confirmed by a report written four years ago by the auditor of the U.S. Department of Transportation stating that U.S flight control systems are not immune from hostile intrusion by terrorists.
The report determined that the use of the Internet in commercial software increases the risk of a terrorist takeover of flight control centers and control towers.
The researchers looked at 70computer applications used by air control systems. They found hundreds weaknesses could break through air traffic control systems to cause the crash of the aircraft.
A Report states that every year there are hundreds of intrusions into computer Flight Control Systems in the U.S. However, these are not made to cause damage, but only as part ofthe hacker’s effort to prove they are better.
The report raises concerns both in the U.S. and worldwide form any world flight control systems based on civil programs and the Internet.
Experts say that the ability to penetrate critical systems is so simple in the USA and other countries which “can cause collision of two air craft in the air or the crash of a plane into a mountain without the use of explosives or explosive different type” one of the experts said yesterday in Israel.
He said that unlike the IDF that has invested a lot of effort into protecting its systems, civilian agencies, including those dealing with critical tasks like another flight control of “computer terrorists” according to intelligence reports are currently under control of many terrorist organizations around the world. Not just of the countries.
