Mitigate the risks of vulnerable on-board systems from being compromised.
The scale of an attack on rolling-stock depends on different factors, from the vulnerability levels of the systems, to the intended outcome of the attack. While there are already a lot of ways for attackers to affect rail operations or the controls of individual systems, new methods continue to emerge. Due to the complexity of the modern rail network architecture, potential vulnerabilities and exploits can introduce new threats that enable an ‘advanced persistent threat’ hiding within the network undetected for long periods of time.
Additionally, security updates and patches in rail environments can be problematic and disruptive to operations. This is particularly concerning because systems with known vulnerabilities can be operational for decades.
Operational technology security standards, including NIS and NIST, require the entire network to be protected from all types of threat attack. A rail cyber security strategy should protect the assets that it deems critical to effective, reliable and safe operation. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts or single “silver bullet” solutions to solve cyber security vulnerabilities, and many traditional IT cyber security tools cannot be used in OT environments.