Aviation regulators and industry officials are calling for greater coordination between governments and airlines to protect global flying from cyberthreats amid concern that national efforts could create vulnerabilities in a global industry.
Ministers in charge of security from European Union member states, during a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday, were briefed on aviation cybersecurity concerns by the head of the European Aviation Safety Agency, a European Union spokesman said.
The meeting comes just weeks after LOT Polish Airlines operations at its Warsaw Chopin Airport hub were disrupted last month by what the carrier said was a cyberattack on its flight planning computers. Ten flights were canceled and other delayed.
Aviation regulators and industry officials around the world are studying the risks to commercial flying from potential cyberattacks. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Britain’sCivil Aviation Authority and the French aviation regulator are among those looking into potential vulnerabilities on the ground and in the air.
Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association on Thursday said that regulators need to share information beyond their own borders.
“It is not acceptable that one airline may have access to information and best practices regarding appropriate cyber measures and potential vulnerabilities, while another carrier doesn’t, simply because it is based in a different country,” he said according to his prepared remarks at the Civil Aviation Cyber Security Conference in Singapore.
Some regulators have already started working together. France and the U.K. are exchanging information on cybersecurity concerns, said Eric Plaisant, deputy for security at the French civil aviation authority DGAC.
The European Aviation Safety Agency also held a cybersecurity workshop in May. The participants, that included European Union representatives, those from member states and industry, concluded that “cybersecurity incidents are increasing in frequency and magnitude, and becoming more complex,” the Cologne-based organization said.
Countries have historically struggled to share often sensitive threat information to commercial aviation. The shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine occurred after some airlines avoided the region. Since then the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations’ air safety arm, has set up a mechanism for greater information exchange between countries.
Mr. Tyler said the downing of Flight 17, which killed all 298 people onboard, showed that “the significant risks of not sharing information demand more progress in this area.”
A recent report provided to IATA by a cybersecurity firm suggested “airlines are the highest value target for swindlers and close to 50% of all phishing attempts are made against airlines and airline passengers,” Mr. Tyler said.
The trade group that represents more than 200 carriers operates a clearinghouse for airline ticketing that processes more than $388 billion worth of transactions a year. Mr. Tyler said that, in March, the organization blocked 80,000 suspicious connections to its computer systems a day and was subjected to five “brute forcing” attempts to connect to its accounts.
An Air France official said the carrier has also seen attempts to penetrate its reservation systems.
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