Cyber threats are recognized by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America as the transportation industry becomes more and more interconnected and dependent on complex computing systems.
A report from the nation’s largest organization for advancing the research, development and deployment of intelligent transportation systems said, “Securing [machine-to-machine] applications, and preventing mischief and mischance, will be major tasks for the transportation sector.”
Meanwhile the public utilities sector has recently been under attack, according to the US Department of Homeland Security. In mid-2014 a report issued by the agency’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team said a hacking group attacked a US public utility and compromised its control system network.
According to Advisen’s Loss Insights database, cyber cases in the industry group of transportation and public utilities have increased since 2010 despite a slight dip in 2014. The count for 2014 may increase as cases are added.
Compared to other industries, cyber cases from transportation and public utilities are not as common as some other industry classes tracked by Advisen. But the trend is still up.
ITC said the “unintended introduction of design flaws and coding bugs are in inevitable part of the software development process for complex technologies,” and the demand for these technologies has “outstripped the capacity for software engineers to design systems with any degree of assurance that the software will be reliable or secure.”
Reportedly, utilities have reported multiple cyber incidents to the Energy Department.
Network security violation or disruptions make up a majority of cyber case types in transportation and public utilities, according to the database. These occurrence of these types of cyber cases has grown in recent years to outpace digital data breaches.
Over the last several years, cyber attacks have targeted a business’ income more and more. The theft of personal financial information has gone down but the cases in the database include more mentions of personal privacy data.
Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
