A researcher who specializes in the security of commercial airplanes was barred from a United Airlines flight after he tweeted a joke about hacking a key communications system of the plane.
Although the Tweet was made in jest, it does highlight concerns over security of airline navigation and communications systems.
Tripwire’s Director of IT Security and Risk Strategy, Tim Erlin, provided the following comments:
“One of the most obvious cyber security challenges in the aviation industry is the increasing sophistication of attacks, and the participation of so called ‘nation-state actors’. It’s hard to get an accurate picture of how many nation state sponsored attacks are out there because there are a lot of unsubstantiated claims and attribution. At the same time, there’s undoubtedly more genuine nation-state activity. It is a challenge for information security professionals to defend against nation-state attackers.”
By Tripwire’s Director of IT Security and Risk Strategy, Tim Erlin
BIO : Tim Erlin is a Director of Product Management at Tripwire, and is responsible for the Suite360 product line including Vulnerability Management, Configuration Auditing, and Policy Compliance. Previously, in his nearly 10 year tenure at nCircle, he has also held the positions of Senior Sales Engineer and QA Engineer. Tim’s career in information technology began with project management, customer service, as well as systems and network administration. Tim is a member of ISSA, and frequently hosts corporate webinars on various topics, including regulatory compliance.
